Learning about associations: evidence for a hierarchical account of occasion setting.
In 2 experiments rats were trained on a switching discrimination, with 4 occasion setters, A, B, C, and D and 2 target stimuli, x and y. When signaled either by A or by B, x was reinforced with food and y was not, whereas when signaled either by C or by D these reinforcement relations were reversed (i.e., A: --> x+, A: y --> -, B: x --> +, B: y --> -, C: x --> -, C: y --> +, D: x --> -, D: y --> +). In a subsequent Stage A was paired with shock, and then the degree to which food-reinforced (Experiment 1a) and nonreinforced (Experiment 1b) presentations of x and y were capable of eliciting fear was assessed. Those conditioned stimulus (CS)/unconditioned stimulus (US) relations that had been operative in the presence of the fear-eliciting occasion setter A (i.e., x --> +, y --> -) elicited more fear than the alternative CS/US combinations (i.e., x --> -, y --> +). The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to theories of occasion setting and of configural learning.
Bonardi
Charlotte
C
School of Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom. cmb@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk
Jennings
Dómhnall
D
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005239:Fear; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012193:Reversal Learning