The effect of ECS on one-trial avoidance learning.

raise the question as to whether previous stud-ies which have purported to show that ECS induces a retrograde amnesia can be accounted for by ECS-induced fear of the goal. In the present study 5s were given a single ECS after making a response which was punished by shock to the feet. In a similar study, Pearlman, Sharpless, and Jarvik (1959) have shown that memory of the punishment is impaired by im-mediate anesthetization with ether or pento-barbital. If ECS affects performance by inter-fering with memory, then the effects of ECS in the present study should be similar to those obtained with ether and pentobarbital (i.e., rats should continue to make a response which was punished and followed by ECS). If, how-ever, ECS affects performance by inducing fear, 5s given an ECS following a response punished by shock should tend not to make the punished response on a subsequent test.