Savings tests: separating differences in rate of learning from differences in initial levels.
Three experiments used a Pavlovian magazine-approach procedure in rats to explore, in 3 theoretically interesting cases, the inferences made from savings tests. In each experiment, a compound test procedure allowed the separation of differences in rate of acquiring new associative learning from differences in initial level of associative strength. Experiment 1 found that the slower acquisition after prior nonreinforced exposure (latent inhibition) reflected differences in learning rate, not initial level. By contrast, Experiments 2 and 3 found that the higher performance observed to a previously trained and extinguished stimulus, and lower performance observed to a conditioned inhibitor, both arose primarily because of differences in initial associative value. These experiments illustrate the usefulness of a novel testing procedure in sharpening the conclusions from savings procedures.
Rescorla
Robert A
RA
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. rescorla@cattell.psych.upenn.edu
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001307:Auditory Perception; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception