title: US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
abstract: Four experiments in rats examined whether occasion setters and target CSs play qualitatively different roles in occasion-setting discriminations. Two visual occasion setters, A and B, signalled reinforcement of two auditory target CSs, x and y, with sucrose and oil (A…x→suc, B…y→oil, A-, B-, x-, y-); in addition two transfer CSs w and z were paired with sucrose and oil (w→suc, z→oil). When w and z were substituted for x and y (A…w, B…w, A…z, B…z) more responding was observed when both stimuli had been paired with the same outcome (Experiments 1 and 3a). No effect was observed when two visual "pseudo-occasion setters", C and D (paired with sucrose and oil in a trace relation to the US:C…→suc, D…→oil), were substituted for the occasion setters A and B (C…x, D…x, C…y, D…y; Experiments 2, 3b and 4). These results could not be explained in terms of Pavlovian summation: responding to combinations of Pavlovian CSs paired with same or different outcomes was either the same, or lower when both stimuli had been paired with the same outcome (Experiment 4). Implications of these results for theories of occasion setting and configural learning are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK. cmb@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonardi
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartle
authors.forename: Dómhnall
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jennings
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004042:Dietary Fats, Unsaturated / Q000494:pharmacology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D051381:Rats; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D013395:Sucrose / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D004042:Dietary Fats, Unsaturated; D013395:Sucrose