The effects of chlordiazepoxide HCl administration upon punishment and conditioned suppression in the rat

Rats were trained to lever press for sucrose on a random interval (RI) 64-s schedule. During a 55 min session there were four 3 min "intrusion periods" signalled by a flashing house-light. In experiment 1 there were two groups matched for baseline response rate. During the intrusion periods one group received response-independent footshock on an independent RI 64 schedule; the other group received response-contingent shock on this schedule. Shock intensity was varied for each rat to match degree of response suppression between the two groups. Chlordiazepoxide HCl (CDP) in doses 0.5-5 mg/kg alleviated response suppression equally in both groups. Experiment II followed the same procedure, except that all animals had the same shock intensity, producing greater response suppression in the response-contingent shock groups. CDP alleviated response suppression more in the response-contingent shock groups, significantly so at 5 mg/kg, nonsignificantly at 1 mg/kg. These results suggest that previous reports that CDP differentially alleviates the response suppression produced by response-contingent shock are an artefact of rate dependency.