Abstract
Rats were trained to leverpress for food and then exposed to unsignaled shock deliveries. Responding was initially suppressed throughout the session, but showed gradual recovery when subjects detected that shocks were separated by a minimum 3-min interval (an “if-shock-then-no-shock” autocontingency). Autocontingency control, expressed as a ratio of accelerated responding following shock offset, appeared to be eliminated in Experiment 1 in subjects receiving septal damage. In order to examine the effects of septal lesions on control by the autocontingency, per se, without interference from response rate increases produced by septal damage, atropine sulfate was administered to all subjects in Experiment 2. The return to lower response rates under atropine made it clear that septal lesions had not eliminated retention of the autocontingency, but rather had masked its control over behavior by increasing the rate of baseline responding. The importance of an appropriate behavioral baseline for demonstrating stimulus or schedule control is discussed with regard to interpreting behavior change produced by septal damage.
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This research was supported in part by Grant A0673 to Hank Davis from the National Research Council of Canada. The authors thank Ronald Doucette for his skillful assistance.
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Davis, H., Herrman, T., MacFAdden, L. et al. Do septal lesions eliminate behavioral control by an autocontingency?. Psychobiology 5, 339–342 (1977). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335342
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335342