Learned helplessness in chickens

Abstract

Evidence of the learned helplessness effect was obtained in 24- to 48-h-old domestic chickens. Twenty-four hours after exposure to escapable shock, inescapable shock, or no shock, subjects were tested on a one-way shuttle task with shock-offset reinforcement. The inescapable shock group showed retarded learning in comparison with other groups. It is argued that the data are difficult to account for in terms of Costello's (1978) application of the systematic bias in the triadic design. © 1987 Psychonomic Society, Inc.