Factor Analysis of Emotionality and Conditioning in Mice

Abstract

14 measures of “emotional” behavior, 3 of escape and 3 of avoidance conditioning were obtained on 126 offspring of 101 ♂ and C3H ♂ mice. A factor analysis of the data produced 4 factors, labeled “Fear I: freezing,” “Avoidance Conditioning,” “Escape Conditioning,” and “Fear II: non-locomotor variety,” respectively. The conclusions were that: (a) “emotionality” is not a unitary variable; (b) in terms of individual difference variables escape and avoidance conditioning are not related; and (c) several indices of fearfulness are inversely related to rate of avoidance conditioning, but no relationship was observed between escape conditioning and any measures of emotional behavior.