title: Blocking in rats, humans and snails using a within-subjects design.
abstract: The present research investigated the blocking effect in three different species, rats, humans and snails in formally equivalent tasks using a within-subjects design. Experiment 1 demonstrated the blocking effect in a context-flavour aversive conditioning preparation in rats: Animals failed to associate a flavour with an illness episode when it was presented in a context in which the illness was already predicted by other cues. Experiment 2 replicated this blocking effect in humans assessing their ability to learn a goal location in a virtual environment: Participants failed to learn the location of the goal in reference to a spatial cue presented alongside other pre-trained spatial cues that already indicated its location. Finally, in Experiment 3, snails failed to associate an odour with the presentation of food in the presence of other odours that already reliably predicted its presentation. The present study offers a start point for systematic comparisons between vertebrate and invertebrate species in formally equivalent tasks that produce univocal demonstrations of the blocking effect.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Leicester, Lancaster Road, Leicester, Leicestershire LE1 9HN, UK. Electronic address: jpg19@le.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prados
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Félix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Acebes
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Loy
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sansa
authors.forename: Maria Manuela
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Moreno-Fernández
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012908:Snails; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Blocking; Comparative psychology; Invertebrate learning; Pavlovian conditioning