Approach-Avoidance Conflict in an Open Field

1968 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorin Zohner
Keyword(s):  
Open Field ◽  
Approach Behavior ◽  
Testing Situation ◽  
Goal Approach ◽  
Approach Training ◽  
Approach Avoidance

Approach-avoidance conflict in rats was investigated as a function of physical confinement, number of approach-training trials, similarity of cues and number of shocks. Physical confinement had no effect upon rate of acquisition of approach behavior but did influence penetration to the goal on the conflict trials. Similarity of cues between the training and testing situation was important in determining the extent to which the animal approached the goal during conflict trials; the greater the dissimilarity of cues, the nearer the animals would approach the goal. Approach was also found to be a decreasing function of number of shock trials.

scholarly journals Evaluating the role of Approach-Avoidance Training on action-tendencies in individuals with skin-picking disorder: A preliminary randomized experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel S. Mathew ◽  
Madeline A. Rech ◽  
Han-Joo Lee
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Training ◽  
Cognitive Intervention ◽  
Behavioral Approach ◽  
Skin Picking ◽  
Assessment Task ◽  
Approach Training ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Excoriation Disorder ◽  
Skin Picking Disorder ◽  
Action Tendencies

AbstractBackground and aimsPathological skin-picking (PSP) or excoriation disorder is a destructive behavior that affects 1-2% of the general population. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effect of a computerized behavior modification task on action-tendencies (i.e., approach or avoidance) in adults with PSP. We aimed to modify these action-tendencies by having participants with PSP complete the Approach-Avoidance Training (AAT) task, using a joystick to simulate an approach (=pull) or avoidance (=push) response.MethodForty-five participants diagnosed with PSP were randomized to one of three training conditions: (1) Avoidance Training (AvT; n = 15), (2) Approach Training (ApT; n = 15), or (3) Placebo Training (PT; n = 15). We hypothesized that after training, those in the AvT would have the greatest reduction in behavioral approach (i.e., their overall reaction time [RT] to approach pictures of irregular skin stimuli).ResultsResults of the pre-training assessment task revealed a positive correlation between behavioral approach to irregular skin stimuli and skin-picking severity as assessed by the Skin Picking Scale-Revised (SPS-R). After training, a lower behavioral approach and urges to pick were found in the AvT and PT groups, while those in the ApT reported higher behavioral approach and urges to pick. At two-week follow-up, no significant changes on the SPS-R were reported between groups.DiscussionOur preliminary data suggest that the AAT is a promising avenue of research to develop as a cognitive intervention to address an excessive behavioral approach tendency that characterizes skin-picking problems.

Adaptation to the Punishing Effects of Cold Water

1968 ◽  
Vol 22 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1249-1254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Hamm ◽  
David C. Riccio
Keyword(s):  
Water Temperature ◽  
Electric Shock ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Straight Alley ◽  
Conflict Situation ◽  
Initial Approach ◽  
Water Barrier ◽  
Approach Training ◽  
Water Trough ◽  
Approach Avoidance

In order to investigate the reduction of the punishing effects of a cold-water barrier in an approach-avoidance conflict situation, three groups of rats ( N = 27) were trained to run a straight alley for a reward. After initial approach training the alley was modified by the installation of a water trough in front of the goal. When all groups were tested with 50°F water in the barrier, Ss trained with gradually declining water temperatures in the barrier performed significantly better ( p < .01) than Ss trained with a constant water temperature of 50°F or Ss trained with 95°F water in the trough. The results are related to those of similar experiments using electric shock as the punishing stimulus.

An Examination of Miller's Approach-Avoidance Procedures in an Open Field

1968 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 909-915 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Keith McCarty ◽  
Joseph Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Open Field ◽  
Avoidance Training ◽  
Straight Alley ◽  
Shock Group ◽  
Stress Reactions ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Shock Control ◽  
Support Theory ◽  
High Shock ◽  
Approach Avoidance

4 groups of food-deprived rats were formed by matching animals on approach behavior to a food cup in the center of an open field. Two of the groups became experimental groups for avoidance training; a high-shock group (1.0 ma.) and a low-shock group (0.15 ma.). The remaining two groups became high- and low-shock control groups. The experimental groups differed significantly on the number of times shocked during avoidance training and trials to recovery from avoidance training. Expected differential circling distances from the food dish for high- and low-shock groups did not occur. The open field dramatically elicited thigmotaxic behavior and emotional stress reactions. Changes in apparatus design were suggested to elicit differential circling distances between experimental groups. The results support theory developed for straight-alley data.

Approach-Avoidance Conflict: II. Role of Olfactory Cues

1970 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 631-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Thomas Elder ◽  
Thomas E. Kuehne ◽  
Daniel D. Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Goal Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Shocked Group ◽  
Approach Training ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Additional Approach ◽  
Made In

24 naive hooded rats were employed in a 2 × 2 factorial comparison of anosmic versus non-anosmic and obstruction versus non-obstruction conditions. Comparisons were made in terms of speed-of-locomotion toward a goal area. After all Ss had received a series of successive reinforced approach-training trials, several untrained rats were placed in the goal box and subjected to foot shock. 9 min. later the shocked rats were removed, and previously designated groups of trained rats were given additional approach trials. A non-shocked group of untrained rats was placed in the maze and removed after 9 min. as the non-obstruction condition. Thus anosmic and sham-operated rats were compared before and after untrained rats occupied the goal box. Analysis of speed-of-locomotion scores showed the non-anosmic group had a significant reduction in speed-of-approach following occupancy by the shocked untrained rats. None of the other three groups showed a similar change in the previously established speed-of-approach. From these and other data, it appears unshocked rats respond differendy to olfactory cues generated by the previous occupancy of shocked and non-shocked rats.

Epinephrine and Nor-Epinephrine Effects on Approach-Avoidance Behavior

1969 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Carley ◽  
Jack R. Haynes
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Behavior ◽  
Conflict Situation ◽  
Electric Grid ◽  
Approach Behavior ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Avoidance Situation ◽  
Approach Avoidance

Effects of epinephrine and nor-epinephrine on avoidance behavior in 30 male C57BL/6J mice were investigated. Ss were placed in an approach-avoidance situation created in a linear maze with an electric grid in front of the goalbox. After avoidance behavior was established, each S was placed in the conflict situation under each of three drug conditions: epinephrine, nor-epinephrine, and placebo. The results showed that all conditions were significantly different from each other, with the greatest amount of avoidance behavior being shown under epinephrine and the greatest approach behavior under nor-epinephrine. It was concluded that epinephrine and nor-epinephrine may have differential effects on approach-avoidance behavior.

Chemically Contaminated Eel Fed to Pregnant and Lactating Mouse Dams Causes Hyperactivity in Their Offspring

2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 36-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imen Dridi ◽  
Nidhal Soualeh ◽  
Torsten Bohn ◽  
Rachid Soulimani ◽  
Jaouad Bouayed
Keyword(s):  
Open Field ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Home Cage ◽  
Anguilla Anguilla ◽  
Acetylcholinesterase Activity ◽  
Female Offspring ◽  
Significant Inhibition ◽  
Standard Diet ◽  
Early Life Exposure ◽  
Cage Test

Abstract.This study examined whether perinatal exposure to polluted eels (Anguilla anguilla L.) induces changes in the locomotor activity of offspring mice across lifespan (post-natal days (PNDs) 47 – 329), using the open field and the home cage activity tests. Dams were exposed during gestation and lactation, through diets enriched in eels naturally contaminated with pollutants including PCBs. Analysis of the eel muscle focused on the six non-dioxin-like (NDL) indicator PCBs (Σ6 NDL-PCBs: 28, 52, 101, 138, 153 and 180). Four groups of dams (n = 10 per group) received either a standard diet without eels or eels (0.8 mg/kg/day) containing 85, 216, or 400 ng/kg/day of ϵ6 NDL-PCBs. The open field test showed that early-life exposure to polluted eels increased locomotion in female offspring of exposed dams but not in males, compared to controls. This hyperlocomotion appeared later in life, at PNDs 195 and 329 (up to 32 % increase, p < 0.05). In addition, overactivity was observed in the home cage test at PND 305: exposed offspring females showed a faster overall locomotion speed (3.6 – 4.2 cm/s) than controls (2.9 cm/s, p <0.05); again, males remained unaffected. Covered distances in the home cage test were only elevated significantly in offspring females exposed to highest PCB concentrations (3411 ± 590 cm vs. 1377 ± 114 cm, p < 0.001). These results suggest that early-life exposure to polluted eels containing dietary contaminants including PCBs caused late, persistent and gender-dependent neurobehavioral hyperactive effects in offspring mice. Furthermore, female hyperactivity was associated with a significant inhibition of acetylcholinesterase activity in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.

Oral Approach Avoidance

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 355-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Godinho ◽  
Margarida V. Garrido ◽  
Oleksandr V. Horchak
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Oral Movements ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Oral Approach ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
European Family

Abstract. Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal articulation automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g., Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g., Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments ( N = 274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing preference.

Instruction-Based Approach-Avoidance Effects

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Van Dessel ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
Anne Gast ◽  
Colin Tucker Smith
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Avoidance Training ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Implicit Association ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Evaluative Priming ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Explicit Measures

Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a certain stimulus changes the liking of this stimulus. We investigated whether these effects of approach and avoidance training occur also when participants do not perform these actions but are merely instructed about the stimulus-action contingencies. Stimulus evaluations were registered using both implicit (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming) and explicit measures (valence ratings). Instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were observed for relatively neutral fictitious social groups (i.e., Niffites and Luupites), but not for clearly valenced well-known social groups (i.e., Blacks and Whites). We conclude that instructions to approach or avoid stimuli can provide sufficient bases for establishing both implicit and explicit evaluations of novel stimuli and discuss several possible reasons for why similar instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were not found for valenced well-known stimuli.

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