title: Apparatus exposure produces profound declines in conditioned nictitating-membrane responses to discrete conditioned stimuli by the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
abstract: The present experiments demonstrated that in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) nictitacing-membrane (NM) preparation, exposure to the experimental apparatus produces profound declines in conditioned responding to a discrete conditioned stimulus (CS; Experiments 1, 2A, and 3). Moreover, this decremental effect is at most attenuated in only a minor way when the unconditioned stimulus (US) is presented during exposure to the apparatus (Experiment 2B). Controls for retention loss (Experiments 1 and 3) and for handling and placement in a different context (Experiment 3) did not produce significant declines in responding. These findings challenge theories of extinction that rely primarily on context-US associations but are more consistent with theories that assume context-CS-US associations.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. j.kehoe@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: E James
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Kehoe
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weidemann
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dartnall
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009541:Nictitating Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D011817:Rabbits; D015203:Reproducibility of Results