Enhancement of responding to A after A+/AX+ training: challenges for a comparator theory of learning.
Two appetitive Pavlovian conditioning experiments with rats investigated the associative changes that A undergoes in an A+/AX+ blocking procedure. Conditioned responding to A was enhanced relative to stimulus B, which had been conditioned in isolation (B+). This result was interpreted in terms of the formation of a within-compound association between A and X. The results of Experiment 2 supported this conclusion by demonstrating that X had associative strength of its own and, furthermore, that extinguishing X resulted in a similar level of responding to A and B. These results are considered in terms of retrospective revaluation theories of learning.
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
Guillem R
GR
Esber
John M
JM
Pearce
Mark
M
Haselgrove
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory; D051381:Rats