Pre-trial confinement of turtles seriously interferes with optimal learning of an escape pattern in a detour situation. Post-trial confinement, on the other hand, fails to affect the learning progress as compared with that of controls given no confinement experience. The continued improvement of Ss given consistent pre-trial confinement suggests that the turtles eventually habituate to the aversive antecedent conditions. Results support the explanation of the induced performance deficit as interference by the persistence of response patterns established during the confinement period.
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