A re-examination of response latency in shuttlebox avoidance learning

Abstract

Male and female rats of the Australian High Avoider line were given 50 trials on a shuttlebox avoidance task. Over trials both sexes displayed a significant increase in the probability of avoidance and a significant decrease in the latency of the avoidance response. There was a significant inverse correlation between the two response measures. These results are in contrast to a report by Bolles, Moot, and Nelson (1976) and suggest that avoidance response latency decreases with continued training, a prediction of the most prominent theories of avoidance learning.