title: [Is there a feature-positive effect in classical conditioning in humans?].
abstract: Jenkins and Sainsbury (1969, 1979) first described an asymmetry in pigeon's operant discrimination learning which they called a feature-positive effect. Subsequent studies demonstrated that other animals as well as humans also show a similar asymmetry. The effect is often explained as being caused by a bias in information processing which results from the neglect of negative information as a discriminative cue. The effect has also been observed in classical conditioning experiments, but not yet with human subjects. Sometimes, however, a reversal of the asymmetry, i.e., a feature-negative effect, has been observed. The experiment reported here primarily intended to demonstrate a feature-positive effect in a classical conditioning procedure with human subjects. Secondly, we also wanted to test an alternative explanation of the feature-positive effect. We found that a substantial feature-positive effect does indeed occur during classical conditioning in human subjects. Our results, however, did not fully support the alternative explanation based on rule learning.
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Deubner
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lachnit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011597:Psychomotor Performance
vernacular_title: Gibt es einen Feature-Positive-Effekt beim klassischen Konditionieren im Humanbereich?