Abstract
Two experiments investigated the effect of target variables upon the behavior of aggressor rats during shock-induced aggression. The first experiment indicated that highly aggressive rat pairs displayed a brief decrement in fighting after they were trained to respond to shock in a manner incompatible with aggression. The incompatible response involved both rats being down on all four paws, remaining relatively immobile, and facing into opposite corners. Exp. 2 was designed to assess whether the transient nature of the cornering in Exp. 1 was due to rapid extinction of the trained response under those stimulus conditions or whether the fighting behavior of the conspecifics disrupted the cornering. These data, combined with those of Exp. 1, indicated that cornering declined most slowly in the absence of a target, more rapidly in the presence of a target also cornering, and most rapidly in the presence of a target not cornering but confined to the opposite corner. The results suggested that the specific behavior of the target disrupted the trained response and provoked attack.