title: Acquired equivalence of cues by presentation in a common context in rats.
abstract: It is well established that humans and other animals may treat two perceptually different cues alike, if the cues have been individually paired with a common antecedent or a common consequence. Recently, Molet et al. (Psychon Bull Rev 18:618-623, 2011) reported evidence for a new form of acquired equivalence in human conditional discrimination, namely context-mediated equivalence. In the present research, using a flavor conditioning procedure, we asked whether rats would show similar context-mediated equivalence to demonstrate that this new form of acquired equivalence is a general phenomenon. Rats experienced two flavor cues A and B each presented either in the same context, X, or each in its own distinctive context, X or Y. Subsequently, the rats experienced B with sucrose in a third context, Z, and then the generalization of conditioning to A was assessed. When tested in Context Z, consumption of A was more marked when A and B had both been presented in the same context than when they had been presented in two different contexts. Thus, importantly, in the absence of the training context, cues that shared a common context at different times came to be treated as equivalent. This represents the first evidence of context-mediated equivalence in a nonhuman species.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lille, Nord de France, Domaine Universitaire du "Pont de Bois", Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France. mikael.molet@univ-lille3.fr
authors.forename: Mikaël
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molet
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Zentall
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D003463:Cues; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats / Q000523:psychology*; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans / Q000523:psychology