Single-incentive selective associations produced solely as a function of compound-stimulus conditioning context.
Barpressing was maintained in a tone-plus-light (TL) condition in 2 groups of rats by shock-related contingencies and in 2 other groups by food-related contingencies. Responding ceased in TL absence (TL). Contingency arrangements made TL hedonically positive, relative to TL, for 1 shock group and for 1 food group and hedonically negative for 1 shock group and for 1 food group. In a stimulus-element test, the visual modality was dominant when TL was hedonically positive, whereas auditory control increased when TL was negative, irrespective of the reinforcers involved. Within-incentive contingency manipulations produced selective associations hitherto ascribed to stimulus-reinforcer interactions, suggesting that biological constraints on learning may operate at the level of conditioned psychological states.
Weiss
S J
SJ
Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC 20016.
Panlilio
L V
LV
Schindler
C W
CW
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004597:Electroshock; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D051381:Rats; D011930:Reaction Time; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule