Four groups of rats were exposed to response-reinforcement contingent, yoked reinforcement, or yoked stimulus reinforcement schedules in a Skinner box or to no experimental pretreatment. All groups were subsequently tested for transfer of the learned helplessness effect on a shuttle-box active avoidance task. The yoked stimulus reinforcement group showed some retardation of avoidance learning in comparison with the other three groups. Subjects were previously implanted electrodes into their brain fields and were measured averaged visual evoked potentials (VEP) during test sessions. The amplitude of VEP at the septal area showed gradual increase with their test task performances except the yoked stimulus reinforcement group. These results suggest that the experience of prior contingency disturbs their following learning.