title: Trial and intertrial durations in Pavlovian conditioning: issues of learning and performance.
abstract: Four experiments assessed the effects of trial (T) and intertrial (I) durations on magazine approach behavior in rats. In Experiments 1 and 2, different groups of animals were conditioned with various combinations of I and T durations. The rate of acquisition, in terms of the number of trials required to reach various acquisition criteria, generally was faster in groups trained with large I:T ratios. There also were differences in rate of acquisition and terminal response rates between groups trained with identical I:T ratios but with different absolute I and T durations. Differences evident at the end of conditioning persisted during a common test with various combinations of I and T durations. Experiments 3 and 4 provided a more specific test of the predictions of 2 general classes of theories and found results that were consistent with those theories that characterize group differences as indicative of differences in learning, rather than in performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 3740 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. kmlattal@sas.upenn.edu
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lattal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule