Frustation and learned helplessness.
This article reports the transfer of learned helplessness from one aversive motivator, shock to another, frustration. In experiment 1, animals were trained to approach food in a runway and concomitantly exposed to either escapable, inescapable, or no shock in a different situation. Extinction was conducted in the runway, and subsequently the animals were tested for hurdle-jump escape from the frustrating goal box. Inescapably shocked rats failed to learn to hurdle-jump, whereas escapably or nonshocked animals learned the frustration escape response. Experiment 2 replicated the basic finidngs of Experiment 1 and showed transfer of learned helplessness from shock to frustration when no running response had been first acquired in the runway.
D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004597:Electroshock; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005639:Frustration; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D051381:Rats; D014163:Transfer, Psychology