Department of Psychology, University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana 47722, USA.
Behavioral and Neural Sciences Graduate Program, Rutgers University-Newark, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA.
Learn Mem. 2020 Oct 15;27(11):477-482. doi: 10.1101/lm.052316.120. Print 2020 Nov.
While interest in active avoidance has recently been resurgent, many concerns relating to the nature of this form of learning remain unresolved. By separating stimulus and response acquisition, aversive Pavlovian-instrumental transfer can be used to measure the effect of avoidance learning on threat processing with more control than typical avoidance procedures. However, the motivational substrates that contribute to the aversive transfer effect have not been thoroughly examined. In three studies using rodents, the impact of a variety of aversive signals on shock-avoidance responding (i.e., two-way shuttling) was evaluated. Fox urine, as well as a tone paired with the delivery of the predator odor were insufficient modulatory stimuli for the avoidance response. Similarly, a signal for the absence of food did not generate appropriate aversive motivation to enhance shuttling. Only conditioned Pavlovian stimuli that had been paired with unconditioned threats were capable of augmenting shock-avoidance responding. This was true whether the signaled outcome was the same (e.g., shock) or different (e.g., klaxon) from the avoidance outcome (i.e., shock). These findings help to characterize the aversive transfer effect and provide a more thorough analysis of its generalization to warning signals for different kinds of threats. This feature of aversive motivation has not been demonstrated using conventional avoidance procedures and could be potentially useful for applying avoidance in treatment settings.
虽然主动回避的研究兴趣最近再次兴起，但与这种学习形式的性质相关的许多问题仍然没有得到解决。通过分离刺激和反应的获取，厌恶的条件-非条件刺激转移可以用于测量回避学习对威胁处理的影响，比典型的回避程序具有更多的控制。然而，导致厌恶转移效应的动机基质尚未得到彻底研究。在三项使用啮齿动物的研究中，评估了各种厌恶信号对电击回避反应（即双向穿梭）的影响。狐狸尿液以及与捕食者气味同时出现的音调不足以作为回避反应的调节刺激。同样，食物缺失的信号也不会产生适当的厌恶动机来增强穿梭反应。只有与非条件威胁配对的条件化的巴甫洛夫刺激才能增强电击回避反应。无论信号的结果与回避的结果（例如，电击）是否相同（例如，警笛），情况都是如此。这些发现有助于描述厌恶转移效应，并对其在不同类型威胁的警告信号中的推广进行更全面的分析。厌恶动机的这一特征尚未通过传统的回避程序得到证明，在回避治疗中可能具有潜在的应用价值。
