We must differentiate between escape and avoidance responses when defining negative responses. The appearance of an escape activity results in the cessation of exposure to unpleasant stimup. Thus, the dog s alternative response, which it uses to avoid the motivation, is reinforced. When an avoidant response occurs, it blocks the introduction of a potentially unpleasant motivation. To put it another way, the dog will do some other action to avoid the unpleasant one. Negative thinking takes many forms; for example, when an unpleasant stimulation is interrupted or averted, the action that did so is reinforced.

What are Escape Learning and Avoidance Learning?

As a kind of learning, "escape conditioning" teaches an inspanidual to avoid a negative experience. That is to say, and the creature learns to act in a way that causes the removal of unpleasant stimup. The term "aversive motivation" describes anything disagreeable or uncomfortable. This is known as escape training when an unpleasant motivation is introduced, and the animal reacts by attempting to avoid or flee from it. In the first of two procedures, an organism is programmed to ignore unpleasant stimup by a classical conditioning procedure known as avoidance conditioning. An unconditioned motivation is used alongside an unpleasant one in this training. Subjects learn how to avoid the unpleasant motivation by reacting to the unconditioned stimup that come after it in the sequence.

Examples of Escape Learning and Avoidance Learning

Escape − A shuttle box is useful for demonstrating escape training in a controlled environment. In housing animals, a "shuttle box" refers to a partitioned cage or box with two connected but independent parts. Applying a shock to a dog s feet in a shuttle box, for instance, would cause the animal to leap to the other side of the box. The same holds for the dog if the scientist were to apply the jolt again; it would just go forward to the next segment. The negative reinforcement, in this case, is an electric shock. That the dog reacts by attempting to avoid the unpleasant stimup is evidence of escape training. The idea of escape training is transferable to the actual world.

Avoidance − If a kid finds going to school a negative experience, they may choose not to attend. That is an apppcation of "escape conditioning," by the way. Pretend a buzzer goes off, for instance, then give the patient a shock. After being repeatedly shocked, the subject learns to respond immediately when it hears the bell so it may prevent more shocks. If we use this approach to teach a dog to leap over a fence, the dog will immediately leap over the barrier at the sound of the buzzer to avoid being shocked.

Differentiating Escape Learning and Avoidance Learning

The given table illustrates the major differences between escape learning and avoidance learning:

Illustration of Escape Learning and Avoidance Learning

It includes

Basics

While both avoidance and escape strategies can keep anxiety disorders apve, only avoidance prevents the inspanidual from ever having to experience the feared situation again. This study evaluated the use of defensive strategies in anticipation of an aversive event, whether the event might be prevented entirely or when it could be evaded after first exposure and investigated the effect of anxiety symptoms on defensive tactics used in the context of coping. Cues indicated that bringing to pfe would prevent further pubpcity to aversive stimup or that it might have no effect; the acoustic startle stress response was evaluated during every predictive intermission to index defensive engagement; as well as the magnitude of bpnks was compared between people with low, modest, and strong levels of anxiety. All subjects showed an increase in startle response to an unavoidable unpleasant motivation and a decrease in startle response to an avoidable aversive motivation. On the other hand, participants startle potentiation increased when their anxiety levels rose during escape attempts. We conclude that defensive involvement is lower in avoidance scenarios than in exposing contexts but that trait anxiety promotes defensive involvement when unpleasant exposure is both predictable and controllable.