The effects of electroconvulsive shock on extinction

Abstract

Seventy-two naive male albino rats were trained to leverpress for sucrose using a discrete trial procedure. The Ss were trained on a continuous reinforcement schedule, a fixed-, or a variable-ratio schedule. Following acquisition, for one-third of the Ss in each group, a leverpress produced an ECS; for the other two groups, which served as controls, no treatment was given. All groups were extinguished 24 h later. Immediately following this extinction session, one control group experienced ECS, and 24 h later all Ss were subjected to a second extinction session. Results showed that ECS maintained responding and prolonged extinction. Results further showed no loss of the partial reinforcement effect.