Comparison of Two Techniques for Hastening Extinction of Avoidance-Responding in Rats

Abstract

Response prevention (forced detention of the animal in the situation which it fears) and the shortening of the intertrial interval (massing of trials) are two techniques for hastening the extinction of avoidance responding in rats. Experiments wert conducted to compare the two techniques on two types of avoidance behavior: (1) a response which had been trained to a criterion of 10 consecutive avoidances (Exp. 1) and (2) a response which had been trained, extinguished, and then re-trained (Exp. 2). For both types of avoidance responding, shortening the Intertrial interval produced extinction in less time than did response prevention. A long period of response prevention was also effective in producing extinction.