Vicarious Conditioned Acceleration: Successful Observational Learning of an Aversive Pavlovian Stimulus Contingency

Abstract

Five rats (observers) were trained to avoid unsignalled shocks in a shuttlebox and then habituated to brief light presentations. They were next confined on an observation platform while another rat (model) received light-shock pairings in the opposite compartment. The observers were exposed only to the sight and sound of the model during classical conditioning and were not shocked themselves. Test presentations of the light during subsequent avoidance sessions produced response rate increases (vicarious conditioned acceleration) comparable to those obtained in other studies where the avoidance animals were used in classical conditioning. Following sessions in which the model was not shocked after the light, the light presentations during avoidance eventually failed to elicit any response increases in the observers. When the model was again shocked, immediate recovery of avoidance acceleration occurred in the observers during the light.

Shuttleboxes, Skinner boxes, and Sidman avoidance in rats: Acquisition and terminal performance as a function of response topography

“…The shuttle box produced considerably faster acquisition than normally obtained with the leverpress. Grossen & Bolles (1968) reported that shock rates in the shuttlebox were co n siderably lower than for the leverpress, and this has been confirmed by separate experience with both types of apparatus in this laboratory (Riess, 1970;Riess & Farrar, in press, b The purpose of the present experiments was to compare formally free operant avoidance in the shuttle box and Skinner box under otherwise identical parameters during both acquisition and terminal performance. Series 1200 modular pro grammi ng system with a 1231 control panel and a 1231-2 plug board.…”

“…The three shuttlebox Ss were holdovers from a long-term study (Riess, 1969) with 4 months of h urdle-cross avoidance experience und er parameters identical to those used in the present experiment. The three Skinner box Ss had about 5 months of leverpress experience at R-S = 20 (Riess, 1970).…”

Understanding Observational Learning: An Interbehavioral Approach

“…In doing so, it is important that verbal behavior not be given any causal or special sort of status. Observational learning certainly can, and does occur in the absence of verbal behavior, as is the case in animal research within this area (e.g., Biederman, Robertson, & Vanayan, 1986;Meyers, 1970;Reiss, 1972).…”

Toward a cross-species understanding of empathy

“…Concurrently, primatologists recognized signs of empathic sensitivities [16,17] and now neuroscientists, inspired by classic early behavioral studies [18–20], are fashioning reliable simplified models to study the evolutionary roots of empathy (Box 1 and Figure 1)…”