Observational Learning of a Discriminative Shuttlebox Avoidance by Rats

Abstract

The study of observational learning of discriminative avoidance response in shuttlebox has methodological advantages over the usual appetitive responses. Three groups of 10 Wistar rats each received avoidance training after observation of a trained model, after observation of a naive model, after adaptation to procedure and no model. The first group performed better than the naive-model group both for frequency and latency of responses. The hypothesis that this learning occurs through observation of the model's behavior explains these results. However, observing the behavior to be learned does not facilitate acquisition of the avoidance response compared with rats learning after adaptation and no model.