Discriminated avoidance and escape conditioning with the tadpole (Rana pipiens)

Abstract

Five larval leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) were given 40 trials per day for 5 consecutive days in a discriminated avoidance situation. Light was used as the conditional stimulus (CS), and the unconditional stimulus (US) consisted of scrambled electric current. The response required was a forward movement to an adjoining segment of a circular water-filled alley. This response shaped up rapidly and was performed readily with repeated training. Compared to the appropriate control groups, there was a significant (p