PSEUDO-AVOIDANCE RESPONSES IN 2-WAY AVOIDANCE-LEARNING

In a two-way avoidance learning task, responses sometimes occur during the CS-UCS interval prior to the initial receipt of shock. The number of such pseudoavoidance (PA) responses was found to be related positively to the number of avoidance responses made after the receipt of shock, implying that some of these avoidance responses were artifactual. The use of procedures that would decrease the occurrence of PA responses would also minimize this possible contamination of the avoidance data. Evidence was presented indicating that the frequency of PA responses was decreased when some amount of exploration of the apparatus, rather than none, was given prior to avoidance training, the shuttle compartments were separated by a small rather than a large guillotine door, a neutral rather than an intense auditory CS was used, and the CS-UCS interval was short (5 sec) rather than long (10 sec). © 1979, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.