Conditions favoring superconditioning of irrelevant conditioned stimuli.

J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process

Department of Psychology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9, Canada.

Published: April 2004

AI Article Synopsis

  • Three experiments with rats explored how they learned to differentiate between complex patterns (XA+, XB+, XAB-) while facing mixed reinforcing signals.
  • In each experiment, the rats learned to respond differently, but this learning took longer for the negative patterning tasks compared to simpler control tasks (XA+, XB+, XC-).
  • The experiments showed that rats reacted more strongly to the combined elements (X) than to a separately reinforced element (Y), suggesting that the combination gave X a heightened response, which was opposite in the control group.
  • These findings support theories that propose varied activation patterns when elements are presented together.

Article Abstract

Three appetitive conditioning experiments with rats found partial learning of complex XA+, XB+, XAB- (+ stands for reinforced; - stands for unreinforced) negative patterning discriminations with intermixed A+ and B+ trials (Experiment 1). AB+ trials (Experiment 2), and A+, B+, and AB+ trials (Experiment 3). In all experiments, differential responding emerged more slowly during the learning of the negative patterning discriminations than during learning of the XA+, XB+, XC- control discriminations. Additionally, the negative patterning groups responded more to X than to a separately reinforced Y on unreinforced test trials: thus, X derived superexcitatory properties. This pattern was reversed in the control groups. Results are consistent with theories that allow for different activation patterns when elements are combined.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.30.2.148DOI Listing

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