Learned helplessness, inactivity, and associative deficits: effects of inescapable shock on response choice escape learning.

These experiments explored whether exposure to inescapable shock produces a subsequent deficit in the organism's propensity to associate its behavior with shock termination. Previous experiments are incapable of resolving this question because they confound reduced associability and decreased activity. Four experiments examined the effects of inescapable shock on the acquisition of Y-maze escape. Here, escape is accomplished by choosing the correct response from two available alternatives rather than by simple locomotion as in a shuttle box. By itself, reduced activity should not produce inaccurate choices, only slow choices. Experiment 1 found that inescapable shock produced slow learning of the correct choice for escape, even though active choices occurred on every trial. Further, the speed and accuracy of choice were not correlated. The second experiment showed that the choice escape learning deficit was produced by the inescapability of the shocks. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the choice accuracy of inescapably shocked rats was not improved by increases in Y-maze shock intensity, even though speed of responding was increased. The final experiment revealed that the effects of inescapable shock on Y-maze acquisition did not dissipate across a 1-wk period.