The Hot Air Blast as Aversive Stimulus in Escape Contingencies with Rats

Resumo

To increase the number of aversive stimuli that are available for laboratory research, the hot air blast (HAB) was tested as a negative reinforcer in two escape contingencies. Sixteen naïve rats were exposed to 30 or 60 HAB presentations. For half of the subjects, the escape response was jumping in a shuttle box; for the others, the HAB was interrupted after a nose poke response. The results showed that seven of eight subjects (87.5%) in each group learned the required escape response. These data confirm the negative reinforcing function of the HAB, which may be an alternative aversive stimulus to be adopted in research with nonhumans subjects.

Keywords: escape; negative reinforcement; hot air blast; aversive control.