Discriminative vs motivational interpretations of avoidance extinction: Extensions to learned helplessness

Abstract

Resistance to extinction of discriminated barpress avoidance in rats was assessed through the use of three procedures, each of which served to break the response-reinforcement contingency, classical extinction (CE), operant extinction (OE), and a variable-ratio shock schedule (VR). Greatest resistance to extinction was found for the VR group, followed by OE and then by CE Ss. thus supporting a discriminative rather than a motivational analysis. Reacquisition rates following extinction suggested evidence of "learned helplessness" in some Ss exposed to noncontingent CS-US presentations. © 1973 Psychonomic Society, Inc.