Immunization to learned helplessness after Positive Reinforcement in Rats
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v10i2.7676Keywords:
learned helplessness, immunization, aversive controlAbstract
This study investigated whether the exposure to different positive reinforcement contingencies, prior to the uncontrollable shock treatment, can reduce the learned helplessness effect in rats (immunization). Five groups of Wistar rats (n=8) were used. Animals from three groups were exposed to different positive reinforcement schedules (CRF, FR 6 or multiple-concurrent), followed by a session of uncontrollable shock and an escape test session; animals from the fourth group were submitted only to uncontrollable shocks and escape test session; subjects in the last group were submitted only to the escape test session. Only the subjects exposed to uncontrollable shock treatment had difficulty to learn the escape response during the test session (learned helplessness effect). However, rats initially exposed to different positive reinforcement contingencies showed reduced escape latencies. These results suggest that repeated exposure to positive reinforcement, before uncontrollable shock treatment, can produce the immunization effect.
Keywords: learned helplessness; immunization; aversive control.
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