Stimulus input recruitment and stimulus trace decay factors in the trace conditioning deficit of severely retarded young adults.
Trace and delay classical eyelid conditioning procedures were used to investigate the relative contributions of conditioned stimulus input recruitment and trace decay processes to the trace conditioning deficit of severely and profoundly retarded subjects. The study included both trace and delay conditioning groups at interstimulus intervals of 500 and 950 msec. The conditioned stimulus durations were 50 msec for the 500-msec interstimulus interval trace group and 500 msec for the 950-msec interstimulus interval trace group. The "empty" interval between conditioned stimulus offset and the onset of the unconditioned stimulus was 450 msec for both trace conditioning groups. After 250 conditioning trials, there was no difference between the two trace groups, and both were significantly below the delay groups in final level of responding. These results suggest that stimulus trace decay rather than input recruitment, as manipulated by varying conditioned stimulus duration, accounts for the poor trace conditioning performance demonstrated by these subjects.
D000293:Adolescent; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002648:Child; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003215:Conditioning, Eyelid; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors