Abstract
It was previously found that under repetitious work conditions a significantly larger proportion of control than of whole-body irradiated monkeys manifested balking and that significantly more balks were shown by balking control than by balking irradiated monkeys. The present study was conducted to determine whether focal-head irradiated male rhesus monkeys differ from normal monkeys in a manner analogous to whole-body irradiated monkeys under repetitious work conditions. Five normal monkeys, four with previous focal-head irradiation (2 doses of 3000 r 30 days apart) of the posterior association areas, and one monkey with previous focal-head irradiation of the frontal association areas, were tested for 50 trials or until balking occurred each day for 44 days on a single form-discrimination problem. If any monkey refused to respond within a 3- min time limit at any point in the daily testing, he was accorded a balk for that day. The results showed that subjects of the three goups differed significantly with respect to frequency of balking, the control group showing the fewest balks and the monkeys with previous focal-head irradiation of the frontal association areas the most balks. Thus, focal-head irradiated monkeys differ from normal monkeys in a converse manner from whole-body irradiated monkeysmore » under conditions of repetitious work. Such data demonstrate lasting effects of focal-head irradiation with x rays, and also suggest sites of permanent damage for monkeys given sublethal whole-body radiation exposure other than those of the restricted areas of exposure in the present study. The present findings also indicate that balking under conditions of repetitious work reflects something other than frustration induced by problem difficulty. Balking occurred significantly later in training than did the achievement of a rigid criterion of learning. (BBB)« less
Published Version
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