Safety signals from avoidance learning but not from yoked classical conditioning training pass both summation and retardation tests for inhibition.

Abstract

In one experiment half of the animals were trained to avoid a signaled footshock by jumping (30 or 160 trials), whereas the rest of the animals received the same events as yoked. For all of them the termination of the warning signal and of the shock was followed by a safety signal. Several tests were conducted to assess the ability of the stimuli to suppress licking by measuring the latency in completing 25 consecutive licks in the presence of the stimuli. Fear of the warning signal and inhibitory properties of the safety signal (summation and retardation tests) were measured. The results showed that there were no differences in fear to the warning signal, and that the safety signal behaves as a conditioned inhibitor only for animals trained with a long avoidance procedure, but not in the yoked (classical conditioning) procedure. These results highlight the role played by the avoidance response and its consequences in avoidance learning.