Effects of handling and context preexposure on the immediate shock deficit

Theimmediate shock deficit refers to the failure of a shock to become associated with contextual stimuli when the shock is presented simultaneously with the rat’s placement in a context. The basic procedure consists of a presentation of the shock as soon as the animal is placed in an observation chamber. Handling of the animal, which immediately precedes the shock, and the novelty of the chamber in which the immediate shock is delivered are potential variables that might be responsible for this associative deficit. In Experiment 1, handling reduced context conditioning but was not responsible for the immediate shock deficit. Experiment 2 revealed that the novelty of the chamber was not a significant factor. These results discount the possibility that handling and the novelty of the chamber are responsible for the deficit produced by the immediate shock. It is suggested that immediate shock could be employed as a control procedure for the study of context conditioning.