| Abstract: | 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) |
