Recovery from ECS-produced amnesia

Results showed that suppression of the leverpress response due to footshock was reduced by the ECS, regardless of acquisition reinforcement schedule, for Ss tested 24 h after treatment.

Abstract

Sixty-four naive male albino rats were trained to leverpress for sucrose using a discrete trial procedure. Half of the Ss were trained on a continuous reinforcement schedule (CRF) and the other half were trained on a fixed ratio schedule (FR). Following acquisition, for half of the Ss in each group a leverpress produced footshock followed by ECS, and for the remaining Ss a leverpress produced footshock only. Half of the Ss in each group were tested 24 h after treatment; for the remaining Ss testing was delayed for 10 days. Results showed that suppression of the leverpress response due to footshock was reduced by the ECS, regardless of acquisition reinforcement schedule, for Ss tested 24 h after treatment. For Ss tested 10 days after treatment, there was apparent spontaneous recovery of the conditioned emotional response (CER), since there were no differences between the shock-only and shock-plus-ECS groups. Results further showed no recovery of the partial reinforcement effect (PRE).