Associative changes in elements and compounds when the other is reinforced.
Four experiments investigated the symmetry of associative changes in stimulus compounds and elements in a Pavlovian conditioned magazine-approach situation with rats. Experiment 1 used multiple groups to examine the associative changes in a conditioned element (A) as a result of its subsequent reinforcement in compound with a neutral X. These were compared with the changes in an AX compound when one of its elements (A) was subsequently reinforced alone. Although reinforcing A enhanced responding to the AX compound, compared with a control compound, reinforcing AX failed to enhance responding to A, compared with a control element. Experiments 2 and 3 made similar comparisons in a fully within-subject design, finding greater changes in a previously trained AX compound when A was subsequently conditioned than in a B element when BY was subsequently conditioned. Experiment 4 found associative decrements in A when it was reinforced in the presence of a moderately conditioned X. The results observed in each of these experiments are more consistent with an elemental model of conditioning than with a recently proposed configural model.
Rescorla
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Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA. rescorla@cattell.psych.upenn.edu
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology