Aversive conditioning in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

In Exps I–III, a shuttlebox was used, with the odor of formic acid as the aversive stimulus. A punishment contingency was found to suppress shuttling more in master animals than in yoked controls, whereas escape and unsignaled avoidance contingencies facilitated shuttling in master animals compared with yoked controls. In Exps III–VI, the Ss were unrestrained foragers flying back and forth between the hive and the sill of an open laboratory window to take sucrose solution from targets constructed so that shock could be delivered while the proboscis was in contact with the solution. A group of Ss trained to discriminate between 2 differently colored targets, one providing sucrose and the other sucrose plus immediate shock, performed as well as a group trained with sucrose and tap water and better than a group trained with sucrose and sucrose plus delayed shock. Ss for which a signal was paired with shock while they were feeding from a single target quickly learned to avoid the shock by flying off the target. The effectiveness of the pairing was demonstrated both by an explicitly unpaired procedure (which retarded acquisition when the signal and shock subsequently were paired) and by differential conditioning. Findings suggest that escape, punishment, and avoidance procedures appear to have the same effects on honeybees as on vertebrates. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral responsiveness of adrenalectomized, hypophysectomized, and intact rats to electric shock.

Tested whether the altered rates of acquisition and extinction of avoidance behavior in adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized rats are associated with abnormal responsiveness to electric shock. The electrical threshold for flinch, jump, and vocalization behaviors in adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized Ss (N = 95) was measured in 2 experiments. Adrenalectomized Ss had higher thresholds for flinch and jump responses than hypophysectomized Ss, and also a higher flinch threshold than weight-matched controls. Hypophysectomized Ss had normal thresholds for all 3 behaviors. The difference in threshold for the flinch response between adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized or normal Ss was not explained by differences in body weight, although heavy Ss responded less to electric shock than light Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Burying as a defensive response in rats.

Notes that in typical laboratory settings, the defensive reactions of animals appear to be limited to freezing, fleeing, and attacking. However, 95 naive adult male hooded rats tested in the presence of bedding material incorporated it into a striking and adaptive behavioral sequence. Ss shocked once through a stationary prod buried this shock source, even when the shock–test interval was 20 days. Moreover, the burying seemed to be guided specifically by the relation between the prod and the shock; Ss shocked through a grid did not bury the prod, and Ss shocked by 1 of 2 identical prods buried only the shock prod. Thus, the usual assumption that the rat's defensive repertoire is limited to a few simple behaviors appears to have been shaped by the constraints of standard testing environments rather than by the actual propensities of the rat. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does touching patients lead to sexual intercourse?

347 male and 310 female licensed PhD psychologists responded to a questionnaire on erotic and nonerotic contact with patients. The 21 Ss who admitted having intercourse with patients advocated and used nonerotic contact with opposite-sex patients more often than other Ss, but they did not differ from other Ss on most demographic variables. On the other hand, the 30 who admitted engaging in nonintercourse erotic contact did not differ from other Ss in their use of nonerotic touching. But these Ss were older and more experienced than the rest of the sample. The differential application of nonerotic hugging, kissing, and touching to opposite-sex patients but not to same-sex patients is viewed as a sex-biased therapy practice at high risk for leading to sexual intercourse with patients. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attenuation of gastric lesions by psychological aspects of aggression in rats.

In a study with 80 male albino rats, Ss that fought with each other in response to electric shock showed reduced gastric lesions in comparison with Ss that received the same shocks alone so that fighting behavior did not occur. Also, gastric lesions were similarly reduced in Ss that fought even though they could not physically contact one another because of a barrier between them. In this case, the "protective" effect of fighting derived from the release or display of fighting behavior and did not require physical combat. A 2nd experiment with 48 rats showed that Ss that received shock together but did not engage in fighting behavior showed no reduction of gastric lesions, so that the protective effect of fighting was not an artifact of Ss receiving shock together. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pavlovian analysis of avoidance conditioning in the goldfish (Carassius auratus).

Conducted 2 experiments in which 144 and 54 goldfish, respectively, were trained in a shuttlebox with light as CS and brief shock as UCS. Performance was measured in terms of "initial response" to the CS (at least 1 crossing of the hurdle on any trial) and-where the CS was not terminated by the initial response-in terms of "multiple response" to the CS (more than 1 crossing on any trial). The level of initial responding was as high in classically conditioned Ss (shocked on every trial) as in avoidance Ss, whether or not the CS was terminated by response, but lower in control Ss, yoked with the avoidance Ss, and lower also in punished Ss (shocked only if they responded). Multiple responding was negligible in avoidance Ss, but common in classically conditioned and in punished Ss. Results can be accounted for in purely Pavlovian terms, no reference to instrumental learning being required. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of actor depression on observer attributions: Existence and impact of negative attributions toward the depressed.

This experiment examined whether others explain the successes and failures of depressed versus nondepressed people differently and how these attributions are related to affective and behavioral reactions to a request for psychological help. Ss reported attributions about the success and failure experiences of hypothetical depressed and nondepressed people. Ss also responded to a hypothetical request for psychological help by indicating their attributions, affective reactions, willingness to help, and desire for future social contact. As hypothesized, Ss displayed more negative attributions toward depressed people. Replicating prior research (W. P. Sacco et al; see record 1986-12000-001), Ss responded to the depressive's request for help with mixed emotional and behavioral reactions. Path analyses revealed that attributions influenced affective reactions, which influenced willingness to help; but a more complex pattern emerged from the analysis of desire for future social contact. Results are discussed in terms of the interpersonal impact and possible causes of negative attributions about the experiences of depressed people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure to learn to escape by rats previously exposed to inescapable shock is partly produced by associative interference.

2 experiments demonstrated that the effects of prior exposure to inescapable shock on the subsequent acquisition of an escape response in rats is determined by the nature of the contingency that exists between responding and shock termination during the escape learning task, and not by the amount of effort required to make the response or the amount of shock that the S is forced to receive during each trial. Exp I, using 48 male Simonsen rats, showed that inescapably shocked Ss did not learn to escape shock in a shuttle box if 2 crossings of the shuttle box were required (fixed ratio, FR, -2) to terminate shock, but did learn this FR-2 response if a brief interruption of shock occurs after the 1st crossing of the FR-2. Exp II with 72 Ss showed that inescapably shocked Ss learned a single-crossing escape response as rapidly as did controls, but were severely retarded if a brief delay in shock termination was arranged to follow the response. Results are discussed in terms of the learned helplessness hypothesis, which assumes that prior exposure to inescapable shock results in associative interference. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suppressive and enhancing effects of footshock on food-reinforced operant responding following septal lesions in rats.

Measured effect of septal lesions on suppression of an intermittently food-reinforced lever press by contingent and noncontingent footshock, using a total of 48 experimentally naive male hooded Lister rats in 2 experiments. Ss with septal damage maintained higher response rates than did intact Ss under both contingent and noncontingent shock. Furthermore, the difference in suppression produced by the contingent and noncontingent conditions was approximately the same for the experimental Ss and controls. In Exp II performance was measured during counter-conditioning in which the correlation between contingent shock and positive reinforcement was varied. Ss with septal lesions responded at higher rates than did controls. When only reinforced responses were punished, this lesion-induced elevation represented an increase above baseline performance without punishment. This finding suggests that the effect of septal damage on appetitive instrumental performance cannot be due solely to a deficit in response inhibition. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Septal ablation in the rat and bar pressing under appetitive and aversive control.

Assigned 6 male hooded rats with bilateral septal lesions and 3 Ss with bilateral cortical control lesions to bar-press in a successive discrimination (go, no-go) task. Over successive experimental conditions, responding was maintained by the following reinforcers: food, shock escape, shock avoidance, concurrent food reinforcement and shock avoidance, and, once again, food. Ss with septal lesions responded to the no-go stimulus at higher rates than did controls only under the simple food-reinforcement conditions. Results suggest that disinhibition of bar pressing following septal ablation in rats may occur with appetitive and not with aversive schedules of reinforcement. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure to uncontrollable stress alters withdrawal from morphine.

Examined the influence of the controllability/uncontrollability of shock as a stressor on the severity of subsequent morphine withdrawal in 2 experiments with 84 male Holtzman rats. In Exp I (36 Ss), Ss that received 2 daily sessions of 80 yoked-inescapable shocks, in contrast to those given 80 escapable shocks or restrained without shock, showed an enhanced series of correlated withdrawal behaviors (i.e., mouthing, teeth chattering, head/body shakes) 24 hrs later when injected with morphine sulfate (5 mg/kg) followed by a naloxone HCl (5 mg/kg) challenge. In Exp II (48 Ss), this finding was replicated with escape-yoked-restrained Ss given saline injections during the pretreatment phase, but the impact that inescapable shock had on later precipitated withdrawal was completely blocked when Ss were administered naltrexone HCl (14 mg/kg) before each shock session. Findings are discussed in terms of the capability of inescapable shock to activate an endogenous opiate system, thereby leading to a sensitization of release or receptor processes that could protentiate later morphine withdrawal. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of exposure to conditioned stimulus and control of its termination in the extinction of avoidance behavior.

Describes 2 experiments in which, following signaled shuttle box avoidance training, a total of 52 female Fischer344 rats were exposed to the conditioned stimulus (CS) during no-shock treatment trials and subsequently tested during extinction trials in which shock was also absent. In Exp I, Ss that could control the termination of the CS during treatment responded significantly more often during extinction than yoked partners that received the same pattern and duration of CS exposure but could not control its termination. Exp II revealed that the probability of responding during extinction was a decreasing function of the duration of CS exposure during treatment. Thus, in the absence of shock, both lack of control over CS termination and increasing CS exposure each independently facilitated the weakening of well-established avoidance responses. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children learning to use the telephone: Emergency and non-emergency calling.

Examined developmental differences in children's telephoning skills. Four girls and 4 boys from each of preschool, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades were interviewed. Ss demonstrated how they would telephone a friend and an ambulance and how they would receive calls from a stranger and a friend. A general developmental trend was found for Grades 1, 3, and 5. Incoming calls were performed better than outgoing calls, but the gap decreased with increasing grade level. Preschool Ss performed as well as Ss in Grade 1. Children of all grades were generally knowledgeable about the technical procedures for contacting help in an emergency, but did not know what information was important and necessary to supply. 62.5% of Ss responded that parents were not home during the stranger call. Results support previous studies suggesting that children may lack the skills for stranger and emergency calling. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral consequences of crowding in the deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus).

Hypothesized that, when the degree of crowding is manipulated by varying group size in cages of equal size, it is probable that crowded animals will engage in more contact than uncrowded animals. Home-cage observation of 24 male and 24 female deer mice indicates that crowded Ss do, in fact, engage in more contact behavior. Both home-cage observation and testing in pairs for pain-elicited aggression reveal that (a) crowded Ss display more agonistic behavior than uncrowded Ss, and (b) agonistic behavior increases with prolonged crowding. Support is obtained for the theory that the effect of crowding derives from contact with conspecifics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects on avoidance performance of vagal stimulation during previous fear conditioning in rats.

Attempted to determine, from experiments on 5 groups of 10 male albino rats each, whether parasympathetic stimulation given coincidentally with electric shock in a fear-conditioning situation would alter later performance on an avoidance conditioning task. 10 Ss were implanted with a small chronic electrode around the cervical vagus. During preconditioning, consisting of 8 trials of tone followed by inescapable shock, 1 group of Ss received stimulation of the vagus at the time foot shock was delivered. During subsequent avoidance conditioning, these Ss performed the avoidance task significantly better than Ss that received the same preconditioning without vagal stimulation and as well as Ss that had received no preconditioning shock trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinship and affiliative behavior patterns in a captive group of Celebes black apes (Macaca nigra).

Studied the influence of matrilineal kinship on 4 socially affiliative behavior patterns—grooming, contact, proximity, and play—in the Celebes black ape. 20 group-living Ss, comprising 4 genealogical groups, were observed for more than 100 hrs; data were collected by the instantaneous scan technique. Ss spent more time than was expected in contact with, and in proximity to, matrilineal relatives, but they did not play with relatives more than was expected. Findings are consistent with the theory that animals increase their inclusive fitness by preferentially interacting with relatives. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety, Attention, and Coping with Threat.

It was hypothesized that anxiety provoked by a threat over which S had no control would lead to reduced responsiveness to stimuli in the periphery of attention, but that no such effect would be evident when S was given a means of coping with the threat. Ss threatened with shock performed no differently than an unthreatened control group on a tracking task occupying the center of their attention, but had significantly longer reaction times (RTs) to lights which went on occasionally at the periphery of their visual field. Ss told they could avoid the shock with good performance showed no such increase in RT. Some of the effects of anxiety were discussed in terms of these attentional changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Attenuation of Gastric Lesions by Psychological Aspects of Aggression in Rats": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Jay M. Weiss, Larissa A. Pohorecky, Sherry Salman, and Michael Gruenthal (Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology, 1976[Mar], Vol 90[3], 252-259). The figures on pages 255 and 257 should be reversed as Figure 4 now bears the caption of Figure 3 and vice versa. The figures with their correct captions are provided. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1976-20292-001.) In a study with 80 male albino rats, Ss that fought with each other in response to electric shock showed reduced gastric lesions in comparison with Ss that received the same shocks alone so that fighting behavior did not occur. Also, gastric lesions were similarly reduced in Ss that fought even though they could not physically contact one another because of a barrier between them. In this case, the "protective" effect of fighting derived from the release or display of fighting behavior and did not require physical combat. A 2nd experiment with 48 rats showed that Ss that received shock together but did not engage in fighting behavior showed no reduction of gastric lesions, so that the protective effect of fighting was not an artifact of Ss receiving shock together. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitative and disruptive effects of prior exposure to shock on subsequent avoidance performance.

Subjected 40 male rats from each of 5 strains to 10 signaled inescapable 1-ma shock presentations. Shock facilitated subsequent 1-way and shuttle-avoidance performance (1-ma shock) in Charles River hooded, Wistar, Holtzman, and Sasco Ss, but did not significantly affect avoidance learning in Sprague-Dawley Ss. A 2nd experiment employing 120 male Holtzman rats indicated that inescapable shock of 1 ma. facilitated subsequent 1-way and shuttle-avoidance performance, while exposure to shock of 2 ma. facilitated 1-way and interfered with shuttle-avoidance performance. Movement ratings recorded during both CS and intershock intervals in pretraining were found to be good predictors of subsequent avoidance performance in preshocked Ss. Results are interpreted in terms of response repertoire changes produced by shock in conjunction with the defense reaction necessary in acquiring the avoidance response. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned helplessness in the rat.

4 experiments, using a total of 159 male albino Sprague-Dawley rats, attempted to produce behavior in the rat parallel to the behavior characteristic of learned helplessness in the dog. When Ss received escapable, inescapable, or no shock and were later tested in jump-up escape, both inescapable and no-shock controls failed to escape. When barpressing, rather than jumping up, was used as the tested escape response, fixed ratio (FR) 3 was interfered with by inescapable shock, but not lesser ratios. With FR-3, the no-shock control escaped well. Interference with escape was a function of the inescapability of shock and not shock per se: Ss that were "put through" and learned a prior jump-up escape did not become passive, but their yoked, inescapable partners did. It is concluded that rats, as well as dogs, fail to escape shock as a function of prior inescapability, exhibiting learned helplessness. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)