Nontransient learned helplessness

Abstract

Dogs who receive repeated, spaced exposure to inescapable electric shock in a Pavlovian hammock fail to escape shock in a shuttle box I week later, while one session of inescapable shock produces only transient interference. Cage-raised beagles are more susceptible to interference produced by inescapable shock than are mongrels of unknown history. These results are compatible with learned helplessness and contradict the hypothesis that failure to escape shock is produced by transient stress. © 1970, Psychonomic Journals, Inc.. All rights reserved.