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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1984 Jul;42(1):67–74. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1984.42-67

Shock intensity and signaled avoidance responding

Deisy Das Graças De Souza, Antonio Bento Alves De Moraes, João Claudio Todorov
PMCID: PMC1348045  PMID: 16812381

Abstract

Five rats were submitted to a signaled free-operant avoidance contingency. Throughout the experiment, shock intensity was varied from 0.1 to 8.0 mA, with shock duration constant at 200 milleseconds. Results indicate: (a) an all-or-none effect of shock intensity on response and shock rates, on percentage of shocks avoided, and on frequency of occurrence of responding during the preshock stimulus; and (b) no systematic effect of shock intensity on stimulus control, measured either by the percentage of stimulus presentations accompanied by a response or by the percentage of responses that occurred during those preshock stimuli. Such results indicate that for each subject there is a minimum shock intensity necessary to establish and maintain avoidance responding; intensities higher than this minimum value have little or no effect on responding (with an upper limit for those strong intensities with a general disruptive effect on behavior).

Keywords: signaled free-operant avoidance, shock intensity, bar press, rats

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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