The effects of predictability and controllability in appetitive situation upon subsequent disk-pull escape learning in rats

Abstract

Examined whether or not predictability over food acquisition eliminated the impairment of subsequent escape performance which otherwise resulted from loss of control over food acquisition. 40 male rats were divided into 4 groups: (1) predictable/controllable (P/C), (2) predictable/uncontrollable (P/UC), (3) unpredictable/controllable (UP/C), and (4) unpredictable/uncontrollable (UP/UC). For the P/C and the P/UC groups, given a required response by P/C Ss during pretreatment, a 1.5-sec tone was followed by food. For the UP/C and the yoked UP/UC groups, the tone was randomly presented during pretreatment. Results of the number of failures on the disk-pull shock-escape test indicate that the P/UC group showed the same superior performance as the P/C, UP/C, and naive control groups, which differed from the UP/UC group. This effect is hypothesized to be due to an overshadowing of predictability on uncontrollability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)