title: Do long delay conditioned stimuli develop inhibitory properties?
abstract: In long-delay conditioning, a long conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired in its final segments with an unconditioned stimulus. With sufficient training, this procedure usually results in conditioned responding being delayed until the final segment of the CS, a pattern of responding known as inhibition of delay. However, there have been no systematic investigations of the associative structure of long delay conditioning, and whether the initial segment of a long delay CS actually becomes inhibitory is debatable. In an appetitive preparation with rat subjects, the initial segment of long delay CS A passed a retardation (Experiment 1a) but not a summation (Experiment 1b) test for conditioned inhibition. Furthermore, retardation was observed only if long delay conditioning and retardation training occurred in the same context (Experiment 2). Thus, the initial segment of a long delay CS appears to share more characteristics with a latent inhibitor than a conditioned inhibitor. Componential theories of conditioning appear best suited to account for these results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Auburn University Auburnm, AL, USA ; Department of Psychology, Oakland University Rochester, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escobar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Seminole State College Sanford, FL, USA.
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Suits
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Rahn
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Auburn University Auburnm, AL, USA ; Department of Psychology, Oakland University Rochester, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Arcediano
keywords: conditioned inhibition; inhibition; inhibition of delay; latent inhibition; long-delay conditioning; timing