Transfer between contextual conditional discriminations: an examination of how stimulus conjuctions are represented.
In 2 experiments, when rats were placed in 1 pair of contexts, A and B, 2 relationships were in force (X --> food and Y --> no food), and when they were placed in another pair of contexts, C and D, the complementary relationships were operative (Y --> food and X --> no food). In Experiment 1, rats then received a 2nd discrimination that was either contextually congruent (in A and B, Y --> food and X --> no food; in C and D, X --> food and Y --> no food) or contextually incongruent (in A and D, Y --> food and X --> no food; in C and B, X --> food and Y --> no food) with the 1st discrimination. In Experiment 2, the 1st discrimination, involving X and Y, was interleaved with a 2nd discrimination, involving V and W, that was again either congruent (in A and B, V --> food and W --> no food) or incongruent (in A and D, V --> food and W --> no food) with the 1st discrimination. The congruent discriminations were acquired more readily than were the incongruent discriminations.
Honey
R C
RC
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom. honey@cardiff.ac.uk
Ward-Robinson
J
J
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004777:Environment; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats