Nondiscriminated Avoidance Behavior in a Large Sample of Rats
Under "nondiscriminated avoidance" S continually forestalls a punishing stimulus by emitting a response; no exteroceptive stimulus precedes the punishing stimulus. Most experiments in this area have studied rats pressing levers to avoid brief electric shocks. During the time since Sidman, using rats, originated the procedure (Sidman, 1953a) several stimulus variables which affecr the avoidance behavior have been investigated (e.g., Sidman, 1953b; Sidman & Boren, 1957; Verhave, 1959a). Moreover, nondiscriminated avoidance in rats has found frequent use as a tool for studying drug effects (e.g., Verhave, 1958; Heise & Boff, 1960; Carlton & Didamo, 1961; Hearst & Szara, 1961). Despite this wide interest, the behavioral characterization of a relatively large sample of rats, trained to stability on nondiscriminated avoidance, has not been reported. The present srudy is addressed to such a characterization.