title: The Importance of Context in the US Preexposure Effect in CTA: Novel versus Latently Inhibited Contextual Stimuli
abstract: Three experiments were conducted to examine the role of novel contextual stimuli in producing the unconditioned stimulus (US) preexposure effect. Experiment 1 demonstrated that novel contextual stimuli produce a significantly stronger US preexposure effect than familiar or "latently inhibited" contextual stimuli. Moreover, subjects preexposed in the presence of latently inhibited contextual cues failed to show a significant US preexposure effect. Experiments 2 and 3 attempted to provide evidence that the addition of a single novel stimulus to the latently inhibited context would result in a significantly stronger US preexposure effect than when no such novel cue was present. Experiment 3 was able to demonstrate this effect. Results are consistent with the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model of conditioning.
authors.affiliation: Kent State University
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: VanTilburg
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burch-Vernon
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Riccio