An experiment showed that experience with an insoluble problem interfered with subsequent visual discrimination learning. Prior experience with a soluble problem significantly reduced the deleterious effects of the insoluble problem but this ‘immunization’ did not benefit subjects which were able to develop an incompatible position response in the insoluble problem. Implications of these and other recent results for the theory of learned helplessness are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BakerA. G.Learned irrelevance and learned helplessness: Rats learn that stimuli, reinforcers, and responses are uncorrelated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1976, 2, 130–141.
GlazerH. I.WeissJ. M.Long-term interference effect: An alternative to ‘learned helplessness’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1976, 2, 202–213.
4.
MackintoshN. J.Stimulus selection: Learning to ignore stimuli that predict no change in reinforcement. In HindeR. A.Stevenson-HindeJ. (Eds.), Constraints on learning. New York: Academic Press, 1973. Pp. 75–96.
5.
MaierS. F.SeligmanM. E. P.Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1976, 105, 3–46.
6.
MaierS. F.SeligmanM. E. P.SolomonR. L.Pavlovian fear conditioning and learned helplessness. In CampbellB. A.ChurchR. M. (Eds.), Punishment and aversive behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969. Pp. 299–342.
7.
MullinsG. P.WinefieldA. H.Immunization and helplessness phenomena in the rat in a non-aversive situation. Animal Learning and Behavior, 1977, 5, 281–284.
8.
RestleF.Discrimination of cues in mazes: A resolution of the “place-vs.-response” question. Psychological Review, 1957, 64, 217–228.
9.
SeligmanM. E. P.Helplessness. San Francisco: Freeman, 1975.
10.
SeligmanM. E. P.MaierS. F.Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1967, 74, 1–9.
11.
SeligmanM. E. P.RoselliniR. A.KozakM. J.Learned helplessness in the rat: Time course, immunization, and reversibility. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1975, 88, 542–547.
12.
WilliamsJ. L.MaierS. F.Transnational immunization and therapy of learned helplessness in the rat. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1977, 3, 240–252.
13.
WinefieldA. H.The effect of reduced spatial cues on the learning of successive visual reversals. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1974, 26, 196–205.
14.
WinefieldA. H.The effect of prior random reinforcement on brightness discrimination learning in rats. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1978, 30, 113–119.
15.
WinefieldA. H.JeevesM. A.The circular maze: An apparatus for studying simultaneous discrimination learning in the rat. Australian Journal of Psychology, 1970, 22, 71–74.
16.
WinefieldA. H.MullinsG. P.Matching and maximizing behaviour in the rat. Australian Journal of Psychology, 1976, 28, 73–81.
17.
WortmanC. B.BrehmJ. W.Responses to uncontrollable outcomes: An integration of reactance theory and the learned helplessness model. In BerkowitzL. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. New York: Academic Press, 1975. Pp. 277–336.