Is fear present following sustained asymptotic avoidance responding?

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Animal Behavior

Background:

• Avoidance behavior is crucial in understanding fear and anxiety disorders.
• Existing theories propose either fear or expectancy as the primary driver of avoidance responses.
• Seligman and Johnston (1973) proposed a direct test to differentiate these interpretations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To directly test whether fear or expectancy underlies avoidance behavior in rats during extinction.
• To investigate the persistence of fear responses despite sustained avoidance learning.

Main Methods:

• Three groups of rats received discrete-trial avoidance training in a shuttlebox apparatus.
• Training continued until criterion performance (5, 25, or 50 consecutive avoidance responses) was met.
• A lick suppression paradigm was used as a transfer test to assess fear conditioning to the conditioned stimulus (CS).

Main Results:

• All groups demonstrated significant lick suppression to the CS, indicating the presence of fear.
• Fear responses were evident even in the group trained to 50 consecutive avoidance responses.
• Data contradicted expectancy theory predictions and supported fear theory.

Conclusions:

• Fear, rather than expectancy, is the primary motivator for sustained avoidance responding.
• Fear conditioning is robust and persists even with extensive avoidance training.
• Findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms of fear and anxiety.