Second-order avoidance behavior in monkeys

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Animal Behavior
• Operant Conditioning

Background:

• Understanding conditioned aversive stimuli is crucial for explaining complex avoidance behaviors.
• Multiple schedules of reinforcement present unique challenges for response allocation and decision-making in animals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the availability of different outcomes (food vs. avoidance) influences responding in an optional component of a multiple schedule.
• To determine if a stimulus associated with avoidance can function as a conditioned aversive stimulus maintaining remote avoidance responses.

Main Methods:

• Two monkeys were trained on a three-component multiple schedule with discrete trials: food, avoidance, and an optional component.
• The consequences of not responding in the optional component were manipulated to be either food or avoidance trials.
• Response patterns and shock rates were systematically recorded and analyzed across different experimental conditions.

Main Results:

• When food was a rare consequence of not responding in the optional component, monkeys decreased responding in that component, increasing overall avoidance trials.
• When only avoidance trials followed non-response in the optional component, monkeys consistently responded to terminate the blue stimulus and avoid shock.
• Shock rates remained consistently low across all conditions, unaffected by the experimental manipulations.

Conclusions:

• The results suggest that stimuli associated with avoidance can act as conditioned aversive stimuli.
• These findings indicate that conditioned aversive stimuli can maintain remote avoidance responses under specific motivational conditions, particularly when alternative rewards are scarce.