The role of contextual conditioning in the effect of reinforcer devaluation on instrumental performance by rats.
Different groups of rats received different amounts of training to lever press for a food reinforcer before an aversion was conditioned to the food. This devaluation of the reinforcer reduced responding in both subsequent extinction and reinforced tests of responding to a degree that was independent of the amount of instrumental training. Moreover, interpolating context extinction between aversion conditioning and the extinction test reduced the magnitude of the devaluation effect, thereby indicating that Pavlovian contextual conditioning may play a role in the instrumental devaluation effect.
Jonkman
Sietse
S
Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Site, Cambridge, United Kingdom. sj306@cam.ac.uk
Kosaki
Yutaka
Y
Everitt
Barry J
BJ
Dickinson
Anthony
A
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D018021:Lithium Chloride; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D051381:Rats; D012201:Reward
D018021:Lithium Chloride