title: Sex differences in aversive and appetitive conditioning in two strains of rats.
abstract: In order to examine sex differences in non sexual behavior, 40 rats of each sex from two strains (gray, A x C and albino, Sprague-Dawley) were trained, using different experimental procedures. In Experiment I, aversive conditioning in a one-way (easy task) and a two-way (difficult task) active avoidance task was examined. Results consistently showed that males of both strains were inferior to females in the acquisition of the two-way avoidance task. A significant interaction between sex of both strains and the difficulty of the task was found. In Experiment II, rats were trained in a Sutherland Apparatus in an easy (black vs. white) and a difficult (horizontal vs. vertical) visual discrimination task, using appetitive reinforcement; no differences between sexes were observed. A significant interaction, however, was found between strain and task, indicating a lower performance of the A x C strain in the difficult task. The results are discussed within the theoretical framework of the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states a relationship between drive level, performance and different degrees of task difficulty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Saavedra
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abarca
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arancibia
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Salinas
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004597:Electroshock; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013045:Species Specificity