Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 1973

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Experimental Psychology

Committee Chair

Terry L. Devietti

Second Committee Member

Vaughn Gerald Reed

Third Committee Member

Max Zwanziger

Abstract

Rats were trained in a one trial fear conditioning paradigm (tone paired with footshock) after they had been trained to drink from a water tube. Fear conditioned animals given ECS (TFS/ECS) showed fear responses, indistinguishable from similarly treated animals given no ECS (TFS/ECS), when administered post-treatment fear conditioning cues 96 and 97 hours after fear conditioning day and tested 120 hours after conditioning. In addition, amnesia was shown at the 120 hour test in the TFS/ECS animals that received no post-treatment fear conditioning cues compared to similarly treated TFS/NECS animals. Further, animals that received the same experimental treatments as the TFS/ECS animals without being fear conditioned to a tone (NCFS/ECS), exhibited no retention of fear conditioning. The data suggest that the post-treatment fear conditioning cues used to job the return of memory, must be similar to the fear conditioning (tone and footshock) in order to reinstate memory, and that amnesia induced by ECS disrupts memory retrieval.

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