The Effects of Emotionally Important Stimuli On Dissociated Learning In A Discrimination Paradigm

Rats were trained to turn in one direction in a modified T-maze while in one drug state and in the opposite direction while in another drug state. Incorrect turns during training were punished with shock and for three of the transfer groups, shock was contiguously conditioned to a 10 KHz buzzer in the drug state and to a 1 KHz buzzer in the non-drug state. During no-shock testing, the dissociation subjects were tested for state-dependency while the transfer subjects were tested for transfer by reversing the buzzer previously associated with the particular drug state in training. The hypothesis, that the transfer subjects would respond in the direction as signaled by the buzzer as often as the dissociation subjects respond in the direction as signaled by the drug state, was not supported since there were no significant differences between transfer and dissociation groups in latencies and the transfer groups did not transfer significantly above chance level. These results were discussed in relation to a prime level of shock for mediating transfer between drug states