Some determinants of performance in a commercially available one-way avoidance chamber

Abstract

Apparatus The Ss were tested in a Lafayette Instrument Co. Model 85200 one-way avoidance chamber measuring 9 x 8 x 8lA in. The chamber has clear Plexiglas top and sides, a grid floor with 15 shock bars, and a stainless steel back. The front is stainless steel also and has a door 3'h in. above the grid floor. When a motor is activated, the door retracts and exposes a stainless steel platform, onto which the S can jump to either avoid or escape footshock. The floor of this safe compartment is mounted on a microswitch, which terminates the trial when activated. An Eico Model 378 oscillator provides a I-kHz tone to a 4-in. speaker placed next to one of the side panels of the chamber. A Grason-Stadler Model 901 B white noise generator delivers masking noise to another speaker underneath the test table. The 1-mA footshock was delivered by a Grason-Stadler Model700 shock generator.