Prior Shock Trauma and Test-Shock Intensity as Determinants of Escape Learning

Abstract

The effects of prior traumatic shock (PS), administered under conditions designed either to maximize (Group 1) or to minimize (Group 2) transfer of trauma-produced learned responses from the treatment to the test chamber, were evaluated in the rat using a hurdle-jump escape situation. Another group (the control group) was not traumatized. 10 days following treatment each group was divided into three subgroups of 0.0-ma., 0.1-ma., and 0.4-ma. test shock, respectively. The performance of the control groups fluctuated systematically with variations in test-shock level while Groups 1 and 2 responded maximally to test shock regardless of intensity. However, under no-test-shock the control group and Group 2 performed identically and significantly more slowly than Group 1. Changes in group variability were similarly related to PS treatment.