The Generalization of an Apparent Adaptation Effect

Abstract

This study investigated whether adaptation (lessoned emotional reactivity) to electric shock is specific to the environmental situation in which experience with shock is had. The conditioned emotional response (CER) described by Estes and Skinner was utilized, with rats as subjects. Four experimental groups received experience with shock in four different environments, graded in terms of their similarity to the environment in which the CER was later to be measured; a control group received no shock before CER training. The four experimental groups acquired the CER less rapidly than did the control group, but did not differ among themselves. The effect thus appeared to be nonspecific; however, some aspects of the data suggested that the effect may not in fact be attributable to an adaptation process.