Date of Award
1983
Publication Type
Doctoral Thesis
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Psychology
Keywords
Psychology, Experimental.
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The relationship between adjunctive behaviour, in the form of schedule-induced drinking, and escape-avoidance behaviour was investigated, using rats as subjects. Escape-avoidance behaviour consisted of vacating the site of intermittent food delivery and then staying away from the food site. Independent groups were run on fixed-time schedules ranging from 30 seconds to 240 seconds. Groups were run either in a small chamber that prevented movement away from the food site or in a large chamber that allowed considerable movement away from the food site. Each group was exposed to two types of chamber wall stimuli. Chamber wall stimuli either were the same throughout or were different in a section away from the food site. In both chambers the drinking site was adjacent to the food site. Drinking was reliably induced on all schedules except the longest one. Interval size had a marked effect on drinking, but chamber size and chamber wall stimuli did not. In the large chamber more escape-avoidance occurred when wall stimuli were different. Escape-avoidance was also a direct function of interval length when wall stimuli were different. When most drinking was confined to a portion of the interval, drinking preceded escape-avoidance. The results did not support Staddon and Simmelhag's (1971) and Falk's (1977) suggestions that escape from the site of scheduled incentives is implicated in adjunctive behaviour. Escape-avoidance behaviour was not a substitute for schedule-induced drinking. Instead, escape-avoidance behaviour appeared to be a facultative behaviour. It was suggested that both adjunctive behaviours and escape-avoidance behaviour may be stress-related, and that adjunctive behaviours are associated with arousal induced by schedules while escape-avoidance is associated with schedule aversiveness.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1983 .B878. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: B, page: 0937. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1983.
Recommended Citation
BURTT, BRIAN IRVINE., "SCHEDULE-INDUCED DRINKING AND ESCAPE-AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOUR AS A FUNCTION OF FIXED-TIME SCHEDULE, CHAMBER SIZE, AND CHAMBER WALL STIMULI." (1983). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3378.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/3378