title: Narrowing down the conditions for extinction of Pavlovian feature-positive discriminations in humans.
abstract: The aim of this study was to delineate the minimal conditions for extinction of Pavlovian modulation in humans. Previous experiments at our lab showed that, after X-- A+/A- acquisition training, X- trials did not extinguish differential X-- A+/A- responding, while X-- A- trials did. Additionally, X-- A- extinction training seemed only to extinguish differential X-- A+/A- responding, while leaving differential responding on a concurrently trained Y [Symbol: see text] B+/B- discrimination intact. It thus seemed that the X-- A+/A- discrimination can only be extinguished by X-- A- extinction trials. (Rescorla, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 12, 16-24, 1986), on the other hand, found that the minimal conditions for extinction were broader in pigeons: Namely, he found that an acquired X-- A+/A- discrimination could be extinguished by presenting the original feature X in combination with a different target (B) that was minimally trained as an exciter. We thus wanted to examine whether this was also the case in humans. We found that nonreinforced X-- B- presentations did not abolish discriminative X-- A/A responding when target B was a nonreinforced stimulus. Nonreinforced X-- B- trials did extinguish the X-- A+/A- discrimination when target B had previously been trained as a target for modulation (X-- B+/B- or Y [Symbol: see text] B+/B- training) or as a reinforced exciter (B+). Our results thusf parallel and extend those in nonhuman animals (Rescorla, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 12, 16-24, 1986).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Priya R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: van Vooren
authors.forename: Mathijs
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Franssen
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beckers
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hermans
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baeyens
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*