What occurs when a rat learns to press a lever in order to prevent a shock from happening

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When a rat learns to press a lever in order to prevent a shock from happening, it is referred to as avoidance learning. In avoidance learning, the organism learns to perform a specific behavior (in this case, pressing the lever) in order to avoid an adverse consequence (the shock). This is different from escape learning, where the organism learns a behavior to escape from an already occurring adverse stimulus, and punishment, where a behavior is suppressed by the presentation of an adverse consequence. Secondary learning is not a commonly used term in psychology and is not relevant to this scenario.

What Occurs When a Rat Learns to Press a Lever