title: Latent inhibition and perceptual learning in a swimming-pool navigation task.
abstract: In each of 3 experiments, rats were preexposed to the 4 distinct landmarks surrounding a circular pool before being trained to find a submerged platform located in a fixed position in the pool. When preexposure was to pairs of adjacent landmarks, it consistently retarded subsequent learning (a latent inhibition effect). When preexposure was to 1 landmark at a time, then, provided the 4 landmarks all contained a salient feature in common, preexposure facilitated subsequent learning (a perceptual learning effect). The results provide little support for the notion of a cognitive map and are quite consistent with an associative analysis.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Psicologia Bàsica, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. jprados@psi.ub.es
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prados
authors.forename: V D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Chamizo
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Mackintosh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D004924:Escape Reaction; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012153:Retention, Psychology