title: Is stimulus competition an acquisition deficit or a performance deficit?
abstract: Traditionally, blocking (X-outcome, followed by XY-outcome, resulting in attenuated conditioned responding to Y, relative to XY-outcome alone) has been explained in terms of the X-outcome association's preventing the acquisition of the Y-outcome association. This view is challenged by models that view stimulus competition as a deficit in the expression of the acquired Y-outcome association. Here, we provide evidence that blocking is a performance deficit in which the Y-outcome association, the to-be-blocked stimulus, can affect behavioral control by the blocking stimulus (i.e., attenuate responding to X). The results are discussed in terms of acquisition and performance models of stimulus competition.
authors.affiliation: Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Arcediano
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escobar
authors.forename: Ralph R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley