Stimulus control of instrumental reflexes in dogs: A comparison of alimentary and avoidance behaviors after prefrontal damage

Abstract

Two experiments involving parallel procedures to investigate stimulus generalization in prefrontal dogs under alimentary and defensive reinforcement were compared. Twelve dogs in the alimentary study were trained on a 50 percent partial reinforcement schedule, and 24 dogs were trained to avoid shock with either continuous shock availability and response contingent CS termination or with only 50 percent partial shock availability and response independent CS termination. One third of the subjects received bilateral medial prefrontal lesions, 12 dogs were given bilateral lesions of the lateral prefrontal cortex and the remaining subjects served as nonoperated controls. Generalization along the frequency dimension of the tonal CS was assessed during a sampling procedure within normal acquisition training, during complete extinction and following differentiation training. The results indicate specific effects from both the quality and the contingency of reinforcement. Within the limits of each reinforcement treatment, a dissociation occurred such that medial subjects tended to show heightened sensitivity to reinforcement density, while lateral subjects showed characteristic elevated reactivity during all generalization tests.