Harald Lachnit

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• PHD
• Professor at Philipps University of Marburg

It has been suggested that attention modulates the speed at which cues come to predict contingent outcomes, and that attention changes with the prediction errors generated by cues. Evidence for this interaction in humans is inconsistent, with divergent findings depending on whether attention was measured with eye fixations or learning speed. We inc...

We used an implicit learning paradigm to examine the acquisition of color-reward associations when colors were task-irrelevant and attention to color was detrimental to performance. Our task required a manual classification response to a shape target and a correct response was rewarded with either 1 or 10 cent. The amount of reward was contingent o...

Binocular rivalry occurs when the eyes are presented with two dissimilar images and visual awareness fluctuates between them. Previous findings suggest that perceptual dominance of a rewarded stimulus may increase relative to an unrewarded stimulus, implying a direct effect of reward on visual representations. Here, we asked how uncertainty about r...

Binocular rivalry occurs when the eyes are presented with two dissimilar images and visual awareness fluctuates between them. Previous findings suggest that perceptual dominance of a rewarded stimulus may increase relative to an unrewarded stimulus, implying a direct effect of reward on visual representations. Here, we asked how uncertainty about r...

Differences in fear conditioning between individuals suffering from chronic pain and healthy controls may indicate a learning bias that contributes to the acquisition and persistence of chronic pain. However, evidence from lab-controlled conditioning studies is sparse and previous experiments have produced inconsistent findings. Twenty-five partici...

Extinction learning, the process of ceasing an acquired behavior in response to altered reinforcement contingencies, is not only essential for survival in a changing environment, but also plays a fundamental role in the treatment of pathological behaviors. During therapy and other forms of training involving extinction, subjects are typically expos...

We sought to provide evidence for a combined effect of two attentional mechanisms during associative learning. Participants' eye movements were recorded as they predicted the outcomes following different pairs of cues. Across the trials of an initial stage, a relevant cue in each pair was consistently followed by one of two outcomes, while an irrel...

Outcome predictability effects in associative learning paradigms describe better learning about outcomes with a history of greater predictability in a similar but unrelated task compared to outcomes with a history of unpredictability. Inspired by the similarities between this phenomenon and the effect of uncontrollability in Learned Helplessness pa...

In recent years, several studies of human predictive learning demonstrated better learning about outcomes that have previously been experienced as consistently predictable compared to outcomes previously experienced as less predictable, namely the outcome predictability effect. As this effect may have wide-reaching implications for current theories...

We investigated whether a sudden rise in prediction error widens an individual’s focus of attention by increasing ocular fixations on cues that otherwise tend to be ignored. To this end, we used a discrimination learning task including cues that were either relevant or irrelevant for predicting the outcomes. Half of participants experienced conting...

This review outlines behavioral and neurobiological aspects of extinction learning, with a focus on nonaversive experience. The extinction of acquired behavior is crucial for readaptation to our environment and plays a central role in therapeutic interventions. However, behavior that has been extinguished can reappear owing to context changes. In t...

In two human predictive learning experiments, we investigated the impact of adding or removing context components on extinction performance toward a cue. In each experiment, participants initially received repeated pairings of a cue and an outcome in a context composed of two distinctive components (context AB). Initial training was followed by a s...

In 2 experiments, participants received a predictive learning task in which the presence of 1 or 2 food items signaled the onset or absence of stomachache in a hypothetical patient. Their task was to identify the cues that signaled the occurrence, or nonoccurrence of this ailment. The 2 groups in Experiment 1 and the single group in Experiment 2 re...

The Inhibited Elements Model (IEM) is an associative learning theory with an elemental stimulus representation and normalised amount of activation. At present, an evaluation of the model has been difficult as the IEM was originally described and specified only for one learning task (biconditional discriminations) and later discussions also concerne...

Cue competition refers to phenomena indicating that learning about the relationship between a cue and an outcome is influenced by learning about the predictive significance of other cues that are concurrently present. In two autoshaping experiments with pigeons, we investigated the strength of competition among cues for predictive value. In each ex...

In four experiments, participants were shown a sequence of pairs of pictures of food and asked to predict whether each pair signalled an allergic reaction in a hypothetical patient. The pairs of pictures were used to present two simple discriminations that differed in their outcome ratio. A rich discrimination, 3AX+ BX−, involved three trials in wh...

According to the attentional theory of context processing (ATCP), learning becomes context specific when acquired under conditions that promote attention toward contextual stimuli regardless of whether attention deployment is guided by learning experience or by other factors unrelated to learning. In one experiment with humans, we investigated whet...

The attentional learning theory of Pearce and Hall (1980) predicts more attention to uncertain cues that have caused a high prediction error in the past. We examined how the cue-elicited pupil dilation during associative learning was linked to such error-driven attentional processes. In three experiments, participants were trained to acquire associ...

The Learned Predictiveness effect refers to the observation that learning about the relationship between a cue and an outcome is influenced by the predictive relevance of the cue for other outcomes. Similarly, the Outcome Predictability effect refers to a recent observation that the previous predictability of an outcome affects learning about this...

The present study explores the notion of an out-group fear learning bias that is characterized by a facilitated fear acquisition toward harm-doing out-group members. Participants were conditioned with two in-group and two out-group faces as conditioned stimuli. During acquisition, one in-group and one out-group face was paired with an aversive shoc...

Stimuli in our sensory environment differ with respect to their physical salience but moreover may acquire motivational salience by association with reward. If we repeatedly observed that reward is available in the context of a particular cue but absent in the context of another cue the former typically attracts more attention than the latter. Howe...

In three experiments, we investigated the contextual control of attention in human discrimination learning. In each experiment, participants initially received discrimination training in which the cues from Dimension A were relevant in Context 1 but irrelevant in Context 2, whereas the cues from Dimension B were irrelevant in Context 1 but relevant...

We conducted a human fear conditioning experiment in which three different color cues were followed by an aversive electric shock on 0, 50, and 100% of the trials, and thus induced low (L), partial (P), and high (H) shock expectancy, respectively. The cues differed with respect to the strength of their shock association (L < P < H) and the uncertai...

Associative learning refers to our ability to learn about regularities in our environment. When a stimulus is repeatedly followed by a specific outcome, we learn to expect the outcome in the presence of the stimulus. We are also able to modify established expectations in the face of disconfirming information (the stimulus is no longer followed by t...

In two human predictive-learning experiments, we investigated the effects of extinction in multiple contexts on the rate of extinction and the strength of response recovery. In each experiment, participants initially received acquisition training with a target cue in one context, followed by extinction either in a different context (extinction in a...

Study design Cross-cultural translation and psychometric testing. Objective The purpose of the present study was to examine reliability and validity of a cross-cultural adaption of the German Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale (QBPDS) in a context of a randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of graded in vivo exposure in chronic lo...

The relevance of a phobia-based conceptualization of fear for individuals with chronic pain has been much debated in the literature. The present study investigated whether highly fearful chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients show distinct physiological reaction patterns compared to less fearful patients when anticipating aversive back pain-related...

In two predictive-learning experiments, we investigated the role of the informational value of contexts for the formation of context-specific extinction learning. The contexts were each composed of two elements from two dimensions, A and B. In Phase 1 of each experiment, participants received acquisition training with a target cue Z in context A1B1...

A central feature of extinction learning is its context-dependency. Changes of the context of extinction usually result in a disruption of extinction performance – the initially learned behaviour recovers (renewal; e. g., Bouton & Bolles, 1979). To explain the strong context-dependency of extinction, current theoretical accounts assume that the une...

Recent research demonstrated that reactivation of a consolidated memory by a reminder-cue makes the memory labile again. Within a specific time-window of reconsolidation, the old memory can be modified through the integration of new information. We examined whether reconsolidation can decrease recovery of extinguished performance in the form of a r...

In four human learning experiments (Pavlovian skin conductance, causal learning, speeded classification task), we evaluated several associative learning theories that assume either an elemental (modified unique cue model and Harris' model) or a configural (Pearce's configural theory and an extension of it) form of stimulus processing. The experimen...

Are we able to pay attention to a stimulus in one situation and to ignore the same stimulus in a different situation? According to a number of influential theories of learning and attention (e. g. Kruschke, 1992; Mackintosh, 1975), the answer to this question is “No”. These theories assume that the associability of a stimulus remains unaltered by t...

In two predictive-learning experiments, we investigated the role of the informational value of contexts for the formation of context-dependent behavior. During Phase 1 of each experiment, participants received either a conditional discrimination in which contexts were relevant (Group Relevant) or a simple discrimination in which contexts were irrel...

Renewal refers to the recovery of acquisition performance when contextual stimuli having been present during extinction are changed. From a practical standpoint, renewal is important as a model for relapse after psychotherapeutic treatments. We examined, whether a manipulation of the attention paid to context stimuli has an impact on the strength o...

In 3 human predictive learning experiments, we investigated whether the allocation of attention can come under the control of contextual stimuli. In each experiment, participants initially received a conditional discrimination for which one set of cues was trained as relevant in Context 1 and irrelevant in Context 2, and another set was relevant in...

Renewal refers to the recovery of an extinguished response due to a change of the contextual cues present during extinction. Both extinction and renewal have been widely investigated because its value as a model for relapse after therapy. This viewpoint have led to a research field regarding the possible procedures to prevent relapse (response reco...

Experiment 1 compared the acquisition of a feature-positive and a feature-negative discrimination in humans. In the former, an outcome was signaled by two stimuli together, but not by one of these stimuli alone. In the latter, the outcome was signaled by one stimulus alone, but not by two stimuli together. Using a within-group design, the experimen...

The advantage in learning after an intradimensional shift rather than an extradimensional shift has been widely used as a behavioural marker of attentional changes during discrimination learning in different fields of neuroscientific study. However, some of the factors assumed to guide these attentional changes have not been completely disentangled...

We report how the trajectories of saccadic eye movements are affected by memory interference acquired during associative learning. Human participants learned to perform saccadic choice responses based on the presentation of arbitrary central cues A, B, AC, BC, AX, BY, X, and Y that were trained to predict the appearance of a peripheral target stimu...

Discrimination learning is thought to involve changes in attention to the stimuli present during training. Take, for instance, a discrimination such as AX+, AY+, BX-, BY-. In this case, A and B are consistently followed by a specific outcome, whereas X and Y have each an inconsistent reinforcement history. Many theories of learning and attention (e...

Renewal refers to the recovery of acquisition performance when contextual cues having been present during extinction are changed. We examined the role of attention paid to the context of extinction for the formation of renewal. A within-subject procedure of ABA renewal was implemented: In Phase 1 all participants were trained with Z+ trials in Cont...

Thorwart and Lachnit (2009) found reliable symmetrical decrements in two generalization tasks: Removing an already trained component from a compound did not result in larger decrements than adding a new one did. In two contingency learning experiments, we investigated first whether time pressure during stimulus processing, as well as the degree of...

Previous human discrimination learning experiments with eyeblink conditioning showed that an increase in the similarity between the to-be-discriminated stimuli had no effect on the rate of learning. This result was at variance with data from other experiments which had used different paradigms and different stimulus materials. We therefore compared...

In three experiments human participants received training in a causal judgment task. After learning which patterns were associated with an outcome, participants rated the likelihood of the outcome in the presence of a novel combination of the patterns. The first two experiments used two conditions in which two visual patterns were associated with t...

To support their main claim, Mitchell et al. broach the issue of the relationship between the learning performance of human and nonhuman animals. We show that their argumentation is problematic both theoretically and empirically. In fact, results from learning studies with humans and honey-bees strongly suggest that human learning is not entirely p...

Similarity does not affect Feature-Negative (FN) discriminations in humans

For some decades, failures to find extinction of inhibition through unpaired presentations of the inhibitor were taken as evidence against conceptualizing inhibition as the symmetrical counterpart of excitation. Recently, however, our group has demonstrated successful extinction of inhibition in human causal learning. In two experiments, we replica...

Models of associative learning differ in their predictions concerning the symmetry of generalization decrements. Whereas Pearce's (1994) configural model predicts the same response decrement after adding elements to and after removing elements from a previously trained stimulus, elemental models, such as the replaced elements model and Harris's (20...

ALTSim is a MATLAB-based simulator of several associative learning models, including Pearce's configural model, the extended configural model, the Rescorla-Wagner model, the unique cue hypothesis, the modified unique cue hypothesis, the replaced elements model, and Harris's elemental model. It allows for specifying all relevant parameters, as well...

Compared to blocking of conditioned excitation, which is one of the most investigated cue competition phenomena, blocking of conditioned inhibition has more or less been neglected in conditioning research. We conducted a human causal learning study and found evidence for blocking of conditioned inhibition. The results favor the view that inhibition...

In a human predictive learning experiment, the strengths of ABA, ABC, and AAB recovery effects after discrimination reversal learning were compared. Initially, a discrimination between two stimuli (X+, Y−) was trained in Context A. During Phase 2, participants received discrimination reversal training (X−, Y+) either in Context A (Group AAB) or in...

In artificial-grammar learning, it is crucial to ensure that above-chance performance in the test stage is due to learning in the training stage but not due to judgemental biases. Here we argue that multiple regression analysis can be successfully combined with the use of control groups to assess whether participants were able to transfer knowledge...

A recent proposal for an elemental account of associative learning phenomena is the replaced-elements model (REM) put forward by Wagner (2003). Although the ideas underlying this model are comparatively simple, implementation of the model is rather complex. In this article, we present Rapid-REM, a MATLAB simulator of Wagner's model. Rapid-REM featu...

Harris (2006) recently proposed a new elemental model of the processes involved in associative learning. Although Harris explicated all relevant mathematical and conceptual details of the model in his article, implementing a computer simulation of his model requires considerable programming expertise and work. We therefore present the Harris model...

In two causal learning experiments with human participants, the authors compared various associative theories that assumed either elemental (unique cue, modified unique cue, replaced elements model, and Harris' model) or configural processing of stimuli (Pearce's theory and a modification of it). The authors used modified patterning problems initia...

An enduring theme for theories of associative learning is the problem of explaining how configural discriminations--ones in which the significance of combinations of cues is inconsistent with the significance of the individual cues themselves-are learned. One approach has been to assume that configurations are the basic representational form on whi...

Replies to the comments made by Leyre Castro and Edward A. Wasserman (see record 2008-02417-023), Steven Glautier (see record 2008-02417-025), Mimi Liljeholm and Bernard Balleine (see record 2008-02417-026), Evan J. Livesey and Justin A. Harris (see record 2008-02417-027), I. P. L. McLaren (see record 2008-02417-028), Néstor Schmajuk and José...

In the conditional oculomotor learning task (Figure 1, left) the position of a visual peripheral target (US) is contingent on a preceding central cue (CS). In the course of training human subjects start to move their eyes in anticipation of the peripheral target. Similar to classical differential conditioning learning is evident in differential res...

Failure to find extinction of inhibition through nonreinforced presentations of the inhibitor might be due to characteristics of the reinforcer continuum: Unidirectional: A reinforcer is either present or absent --> Less than nothing is not possible, therefore there is no discrepancy between prediction (“nothing will happen”) and actual outcome in...

In three experiments participants were shown patterns in association with the occurrence of an outcome. In one condition these patterns shared a common feature. Ratings for the likelihood of the outcome were higher in the presence of a novel combination of patterns than for individual patterns and this “summation effect” was reduced by the addition...

Second-order conditioning (SOC) is the association of a neutral stimulus with another stimulus that had previously been combined with an unconditioned stimulus (US). We used classical conditioning of the proboscis extension response (PER) in honeybees (Apis mellifera) with odors (CS) and sugar (US). Previous SOC experiments in bees were inconclusiv...

Stimuli presented with a low frequency elicit larger pupillary responses than those presented with a high frequency. Similar effects are known for motor responses observed in reaction time experiments. Utilizing this stimulus probability effect, we conducted a Go/NoGo reaction time experiment and measured pupillary dilation to evaluate categorizati...

Current associative theories predict CS processing but fail to explain outcome anticipation

We evaluated stereopsis and binocular luster using electronically controlled shutter glasses with alternating monocular stimulation. In Experiment 1, we used the standard method for testing stereoacuity to obtain a gradual measure of stereopsis. Stereo thresholds decreased with increasing alternating frequency of two monocular half-images without a...

Harnessed bees conditioned to associate odors and sucrose reward learn to discriminate between olfactory mixtures and their odor components in negative (NP: A+, B+, AB-) and positive (PP: A-, B-, AB+) patterning experiments. They thus extend the proboscis to the reinforced (CS+) but not to the non-reinforced (CS-) stimuli. Using the same protocol,...

Previous research has shown that conditioned responding in differential skin conductance conditioning increased for reinforced stimuli (CSs+) but remained constant for nonreinforced stimuli (CSs-) due to decreasing reinforcement density. The present two experiments (Experiment 1: Negative patterning; Experiment 2: Positive patterning) were designed...

In 3 human predictive learning experiments, the authors examined contextual control of responding in discrimination reversal learning. In Phase 1, a discrimination between 2 stimuli (A+, B-) was trained in Context 1. During Phase 2, participants received discrimination reversal training (A-, B+) in Context 2. Testing occurred in Context 1 and Conte...

In previous studies that have tried to extinguish conditioned inhibition through nonreinforced presentations of the inhibitor, researchers have repeatedly failed to find evidence for such extinction. The present study revealed that extinction can be achieved through nonreinforcement of the inhibitor, depending on properties of the reinforcer. In a...

Natural olfactory stimuli occur as mixtures of many single odors. We studied whether the representation of a mixture in the brain retains single-odor information and how much mixture-specific information it includes. To understand mixture representation in the honeybee brain, we used in vivo calcium imaging at the level of the antennal lobe, and sy...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the anticipatory pupillary dilation response is a useful indicator for the examination of complex differential conditioning problems like patterning. A human fear conditioning procedure with six groups (n=20 each) was used to examine conditioned stimulus (CS) processing when a compound stimulus w...

The mechanisms proposed to account for contextual control of performance can be divided into two main classes differing in their assumptions about the conditions required for the development of contextual modulation. The first view claims that contextual control is formed under exactly the same conditions that affect the response eliciting property...

Stimuli presented with a low probability of occurrence elicit larger pupillary dilations than those presented with a high probability. This so-called stimulus probability effect is not driven by the stimulus itself, but by more central processes, such as expectations. The sensitivity of the pupil to stimulus probability might well provide interesti...

In two experiments we explored differential acquisition and extinction of anticipatory saccadic eye movements recorded by means of infrared video oculography.

In a human causal learning experiment, we investigated cue selection effects to test the comparator theory (Denniston, Savastano, & Miller, 2001; Miller & Matzel, 1988). The theory predicts that the occurrence of cue selection is independent of whether the relevant learning trials are presented in a standard forward manner or in a backward manner a...

Participants were shown A+ and C- trials followed by AB+ and CD+ trials. These trials were embedded in a causal learning task in which participants had to learn either the relationship between different foods and allergic reactions or the relationship between different stocks and an increase in the stock market index. The authors orthogonally varie...

Blocking occurs when previous training with a stimulus A reduces (blocks) subsequent learning about a stimulus B, when A and B are trained in compound. The question of whether blocking exists in olfactory conditioning of proboscis extension reflex (PER) in honeybees is under debate. The last published accounts on blocking in honeybees state that bl...

In two conditioning experiments with humans, we found that participants’ prior experience exerted considerable influence on later learning of configural discrimination problems. Prior experience was manipulated by pre-training participants before the main acquisition stage. They either received a discrimination problem that encouraged an elemental...

This chapter demonstrates the applicability of physiological interpretations of behavioral categories for a less complex nervous system. The studies of compound stimulus processing and learning that have focused on olfactory learning in an invertebrate—the honeybee Apis mellifera is described. Honeybees are a traditional model for studying learning...

Gottschaldt's (1926) study on embedded figures serves as the foundation for the claim that Gestalt factors limit the impact of experience on perception. The present experiments studied the effects of practice and transfer on the detection of embedded figures. Experiment 1 showed the clear effects of practice that might have been due to recognition....

In two human skin conductance conditioning experiments we investigated whether processing of stimulus compounds can be influenced by past experience. Participants were either pre-trained with a discrimination problem that could be solved elementally (A+, B−, AB+, C− in Experiment 1 and A+, AB+, C−, CB− in Experiment 2) or one that required a config...

In three human causal learning experiments we investigated the role of within-compound associations in learning about absent cues versus learning about present cues. Different theoretical approaches agree that within-compound associations are essential for learning about absent cues-that is, for retrospective revaluation. They differ, however, with...

In patterning discriminations, animals have to differentiate a compound stimulus AB from each of its elements A and B. In positive patterning (PP), the compound is reinforced whilst the single elements are non-reinforced. In negative patterning (NP), single elements are reinforced whilst the compound is non-reinforced. Using olfactory conditioning...

We addressed the question of whether the amount of individual experience determines the use of elemental or configural visual discrimination strategies in free-flying honeybees Apis mellifera. We trained bees to fly into a Y-maze to collect sucrose solution on a rewarded stimulus presented in one of the arms of the maze. Stimuli were colour disks,...

We investigated the capability of honeybees to discriminate between single odorants, binary olfactory mixtures and ternary olfactory mixtures in olfactory PER-conditioning. In Experiment 1, three single odorants (A+, B+, and C+) and three binary mixtures of these odors (AB+, AC+, and BC+) were reinforced whilst the ternary compound, consisting of a...

We investigated the capability of honeybees to discriminate between single odorants, binary olfactory mixtures and ternary olfactory mixtures in olfactory PER-conditioning. In Experiment 1, three single odorants (A+, B+, and C+) and three binary mixtures of these odors (AB+, AC+, and BC+) were reinforced whilst the ternary compound, consisting of a...

We investigated the capability of honeybees to discriminate between single odorants, binary olfactory mixtures, and ternary olfactory mixtures in olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex. In Experiment 1, three single odorants (A+, B+, and C+) and three binary mixtures of these odors (AB+, AC+, and BC+) were reinforced while the ter...

We report three Pavlovian eyelid conditioning experiments with humans, designed to experimentally decide between elemental and configural learning theories. We used two different designs originally proposed by Redhead and Pearce (1995). In Experiments 1 and 2, three stimulus elements, A, B, and C, were presented in all possible combinations. All pa...

In sequential training positive patterning hinders negative patterning, but not vice versa. This asymmetry was attributed to interference of two different rules. In a Pavlovian skin conductance response conditioning experiment with humans, we further investigated this effect. Two groups performed sequential training of positive and negative pattern...

The Law of Contiguity is considered a keystone of most scientific theories of learning, memory, and knowledge. In general, the Law of Contiguity states that after events occur together (in spatio-temporal proximity), the reoccurrence of only one event evokes the ‘memory’ of the others.

There is evidence that in human Pavlovian conditioning positive patterning (A-, B-, AB+) as well as negative patterning (A+, B+, AB-) are solved by applying abstract rules. In the present report we further investigated how humans solve patterning discriminations by conducting two Go/NoGo reaction time experiments that utilized the stimulus probabil...

Stimuli presented with a low probability of occurrence elicit larger pupillary dilations than those presented with a high frequency. Utilizing this stimulus probability effect, we conducted two Go/NoGo reaction time experiments to analyze category learning and compound coding in the context of associative learning. Experiment 1 showed no stimulus p...

Two human Pavlovian conditioning experiments investigated the impact of reinforcement density (the number of reinforced trials divided by the total number of trials) on discrimination learning. Experiment 1 used a negative patterning problem (A+, B+, AB-) and Experiment 2 used a positive patterning problem (A-, B-, AB+). In both experiments, reinfo...

Free-flying honeybees, Apis mellifera, learn visual stimuli in the appetitive context of food search. Visual compound stimuli are relevant in nautre as bees learn flower images that consist of many visual elements. We studied whether elemental associations between each visual element and the reinforcement (elemental approach) are enough to explain...

There is growing evidence that in human skin conductance response (SCR) conditioning positive patterning (A-, B-, AB+) and negative pattering (A+, B+, AB-) are solved by applying two different rules. The present experiments investigated whether the representations of such rules are specific or general with regard to outcomes and response systems. I...

We studied the ability of honeybees to discriminate between single odorants and binary olfactory mixtures. We analyzed the effect of the number of common elements between these two stimulus classes on olfactory discrimination. We used olfactory conditioning of the honeybees' proboscis extension reflex (PER), a paradigm in which odors can be associa...

Honeybees Apis mellifera can associate an originally neutral odor with a reinforcement of sucrose solution. Forward pairings of odor and reinforcement enable the odor to release the proboscis extension reflex in consecutive tests. Bees can also be conditioned differentially: They learn to respond to a reinforced odor and not to a nonreinforced one....

Animal-based theories of Pavlovian conditioning propose that patterning discriminations are solved using unique cues or immediate configuring. Recent studies with humans, however, provided evidence that in positive and negative patterning two different rules are utilized. The present experiment was designed to provide further support for this propo...

Previous studies of conditioning have shown that non-human animals are able to master discrimination problems which cannot be solved on the basis of elemental associations. Most of these discrimination problems, however, have not yet been investigated in human Pavlovian conditioning. In a skin conductance conditioning experiment we therefore assess...