Environmental control of defensive reactions to a cat

Abstract

Brief familiarization with a strange environment changes the defensive reactions of rats confronted by a cat in that environment, from flight to freezing. Thus flight appears to be a dominant initial reaction to threat stimuli unless the threatened animal is familiar with the lack of availability of escape from the threat situation. Further, as attempts at flight familiarize the subject with the inescapable situation, flight becomes less dominant and freezing emerges as the major defensive reaction. This interpretation supports an elicitation view of flight and freezing, in which features of environmental stimuli, as well as the threat stimuli themselves, determine the topography of elicited defensive reactions.