Worms in a straight alley: Acquisition and extinction or phototaxis

1964 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley C. Ratner
Keyword(s):  
1965 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 705-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry E. Adams ◽  
L. J. Peacock ◽  
John F. Glenn

To determine whether chlorpromazine affects learning by disrupting memory traces 40 23-hr. water-deprived rats were given 1 trial per day in a straight alley maze for a water reward. The factorial design included (a) chlorpromazine vs saline and (b) injection 10 sec. after a learning trial vs injection 30 min. after a learning trial. All groups learned but there were no significant main effects or interaction, which indicates that chlorpromazine does not affect learning this simple task under water-deprivation.


1964 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garvin McCain ◽  
B. L. Garrett

Three experiments involving a total of 145 rats are reported; in each case the generalization gradient was approximately flat. The results pose some of the same questions as do Jensen and Cotton (1963) and other studies.


1981 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Kirkby ◽  
Stephen Polgar ◽  
Ian R. Coyle

Learning to run down a straight alley for a food reward was investigated in rats with lesions of the telencephalon. Over 84 trials the running latencies of rats with lesions of the caudate nucleus were significantly greater than those of subjects with lesions of the frontal cortex or sham-lesioned rats. The running latencies of the cortical- and the sham-lesioned groups were not significantly different. It was suggested that the performance of the caudotomized rats reflected a learning deficit.


1979 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Feldon ◽  
J. A. Gray

Rats sustained electrolytic lesions either in the medial septal (MS) area (of a kind known to eliminate the hippocampal theta rhythm) or in the dorso-lateral septal (LS) area (of a kind known to spare theta) and were compared to sham-operated controls in three experiments in the straight alley with food reward on continuous (CRF) or partial (PRF) reinforcement and inter-trial intervals of 3-8 min. With 6 acquisition trials MS lesions increased resistance to extinction and enhanced the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE). With 48 acquisition trials MS lesions did not alter resistance to extinction after either CRF or PRF training, but LS lesions abolished the PREE by increasing resistance to extinction in rats trained with CRF and decreasing it in rats trained with PRF. With 96 acquisition trials LS lesions were without effect on resistance to extinction after either CRF or PRF training, as previously reported by Henke (1974) using total septal lesions. Thus the impairment in the PREE previously shown after large septal lesions is due to damage to the lateral, not the medial, septal area.


1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Fischer ◽  
Wayne Viney ◽  
James Knight ◽  
Neil Johnson

Albino rats were given acquisition training on a 6 ft. enclosed straight alley runway which could be adjusted for inclinations of 0°, 20°, and 40°. After receiving equal training on each of the three effort conditions, three groups of subjects were given massed extinction trials for 30 min. on only one effort condition. Results indicated fewer responses during extinction under the greater effort conditions. These results support a relation between effort and response decrement in extinction, consistent with the predictions of Hull's theory of reactive inhibition.


1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1127-1131
Author(s):  
Dennis J. Delprato ◽  
Richard W. Thompson

Two experiments investigated the effect of shock intensity on escape learning in a straight alley (Exp. I) or avoidance learning in a one-way shuttle box (Exp. II) in operated control (OC) rats or rats under bilateral spreading depression (BSD). Results of Exp. I using 0.6-, 1.2-, and 2.4-ma. shock indicated no interaction of shock level with cortical treatment and that BSD Ss were inferior to OC Ss. A low level of shock resulted in poorer performance than intense shock. Results of Exp. II using 0.4- and 2.0-ma. shock indicated a shock by cortical treatment interaction. 0.4-ma. BSD Ss were inferior in latency to 2.0-ma. BSD Ss and 0.4-ma. OC Ss.


1970 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 875-885
Author(s):  
William P. Dunlap ◽  
Lawrence Dachowski

40 albino rats were assigned randomly to the cells of a 2 × 2 factorial design consisting of per cent reinforcement (50% and 100%) by deprivation (high and low). Speed measures were obtained from two segments of a straight-alley runway for 80 acquisition and 56 extinction trials with 4 trials given per day. Deprivation effects were found over the closely spaced trials within daily sessions for both acquisition and extinction. In extinction the interaction of drive and per cent reinforcement within daily sessions lends support to a frustration-theory explanation of extinction behavior. The lack of deprivation-produced differences in the size of the partial reinforcement effect over days is also consistent with this explanation.


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