Assessments of changes in the effective salience of stimulus elements as a result of stimulus preexposure.
Rats received exposure to 3 flavor compounds, AX and BX, presented in alternation, and CX, presented on a separate block of trials. The hypothesis that this treatment would leave B effectively more salient than C was tested in 3 ways. Experiment 1 showed that the unconditioned response evoked by B was stronger than that evoked by C. Experiment 2 showed that B was more effective than C when used as a reinforcer in a sensory preconditioning procedure. Experiment 3 showed that B was learned about more readily than C as a conditioned stimulus in flavor aversion conditioning. Alternating preexposure to 2 similar stimuli may protect their distinctive features from the loss of salience normally produced by nonreinforced exposure to a stimulus.
Blair
C A J
CA
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
Wilkinson
Anna
A
Hall
Geoffrey
G
D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D015203:Reproducibility of Results