8
Aversively motivated behaviour
IN this chapter we consider the role of the locale system in an animal's response to
unpleasant, or threatening, situations, where a threatening situation is taken as one
which predicts the possibility of pain. We first consider the various forms of threat
and the ways in which animals identify and subsequently cope with these threats.
Particular emphasis will be given to the distinction between threatening places and
cues. Following this we discuss the effects of hippocampal lesions upon behaviour
in threatening situations. It will be shown that animals with such lesions retain an
appreciation of threat when it relates to cues and respond appropriately to such
threats, but fail either to apprehend or adequately to respond to threatening places.
8.1. Behaviour under threat
The most powerful current theory of how an animal learns to cope with threat is
traditional two-factor theory (Mowrer 1939, 1947, Konorski 1948, Rescorla and
Solomon 1967, and others). This theory postulates two basic processes: (1) the
Pavlovian or classical conditioning of fear to certain stimuli; (2) the instrumental
learning of an adequate response. Traditional theory assumed that the appropriate
response was maintained by the reinforcement involved in the reduction of fear. We
return to a fuller discussion of this and other, more recent, theories later. Here, we
wish to reformulate the two-process model in order to bring it into line with the
cognitive approach of this book. We shall postulate that two processes are involved
when an animal is confronted with a threatening situation: (1) the identification of
the threat; (2) the choice of a particular hypothesis to cope with this threat.
8.1.l. THE IDENTIFICATION OF THREAT
8.1.1(a). Types of threat. There are several ways in which different threats could be
classified, and the scheme one chooses obviously reflects the bias of the investigato