Concurrent eyeblink classical conditioning and rotary pursuit performance: implications for independent nondeclarative memory systems.
The authors examined whether 2 nondeclarative tasks, simple eyeblink classical conditioning (EBCC) and rotary pursuit (RP), would interfere with each other when performed simultaneously. In Experiment 1,100 participants were assigned to 1 of 5 groups: paired EBCC/RP, unpaired EBCC/RP, paired EBCC as a single task, unpaired EBCC as a single task, and RP as a single task. Participants in the paired EBCC/RP group showed significantly greater acquisition of conditioned responses than did participants in the unpaired EBCC/RP group, and the unconditioned eyeblink response was similar in both groups. Comparisons of the paired EBCC/RP and paired EBCC-as-a-single-task groups indicated no differences in trials to criterion, but on some measures the single-task group conditioned better. Controls introduced in Experiment 2 did not change this pattern. Results provide some evidence for the lack of interference between EBCC and RP.
Green
J T
JT
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA.
Woodruff-Pak
D S
DS
D000328:Adult; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics