LEARNING PRODUCED BY ESCAPE AND SPONTANEOUS-ALTERNATION

If rats in a T-maze made an arbitrarily designated correct response, that response was the terminal trial of the day. If, instead, they made the other incorrect response, they were shocked on the next trial whenever they failed to choose either arm of the maze within 3 sec. All rats quickly learned to choose one arm, but the incorrect arm was chosen as often as the correct. Thus the original hypothesis that escape from shock in conjunction with the tendency to alternate would mediate the learning of the correct response was not supported. However, the animals that learned the incorrect response had a much weaker tendency to alternate on shock trials than had the learners of the correct response. Fourteen of the 16 subjects fixated on the arm to which they went when first shocked, which seems consistent with elicitation theory.