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Conditioned inhibition and extinction
... In light of the findings of Zimmer-Hart and Rescorla (1974), which showed that a conditioned inhibitor subjected to the same operations that produce extinction of responding to an excitatory conditioned stimulus did not cause this stimulus to lose its inhibitory properties, the idea of inhibition and excitation as symmetrical phenomena (e.g., was eventually abandoned by some. For instance, this led Rescorla (1979) to appeal to a fundamentally distinct account of conditioned inhibition, which had been proposed earlier by Konorski (1948). This approach claims that the conditioned inhibitor antagonizes the excitor not as a directly opposing force, but as a threshold raiser. ...
... Pearce and Hall (1980) argued that the negative value proposed by Rescorla and Wagner (1972) to account for conditioned inhibition was difficult to conceptualize psychologically. Furthermore, these authors also expressed skepticism regarding the alternative view that a conditioned inhibitor is but a modulatory process (e.g., Konorski, 1948;Rescorla, 1979). The contention that a conditioned inhibitor will only be manifested if such a stimulus is compounded with an excitatory CS, but otherwise would evoke poor or nil responding, was not fully accepted by Pearce and Hall (1980); this assertion conflicts with the results of the study by Wasserman et al. (1974), in which this prediction is not fulfilled (see also Papini & White, 1994). ...
... The major theoretical accounts of Pavlovian conditioning have developed particular ways of addressing conditioned inhibition. While some regard excitation and inhibition as lying on a single continuum (e.g., , others view excitation and inhibition as separate processes by invoking different assumptions (e.g., Konorski, 1948;Lysle & Fowler, 1985;Pavlov, 1927;Pearce & Hall, 1980;Rescorla, 1979;Wagner, 1981). There are also accounts that opted to dispense with any inhibitory process to explain so-called inhibitory phenomena (e.g., Gallistel & Gibbon, 2000;Miller & Schachtman, 1985). ...
Conditioned inhibition is a Pavlovian learning phenomenon in which a stimulus that predicts the absence of an otherwise expected outcome comes to control an organism’s responding. Such responding usually manifests as a tendency that opposes that of a stimulus that predicts the outcome, also known as a conditioned excitor. Some learning theorists have expressed concerns about the validity and usefulness of conditioned inhibition as a concept; claims that may have negatively affected the reputation of this research area. This article offers a contemporary review of critiques of and controversies over conditioned inhibition and of arguments advanced in its defense. Some of these disputes have been reported in previous reviews, but here we have sought to compile the most representative among them. We also propose new arguments that answer some of those critiques. We then address the most prominent theoretical accounts of conditioned inhibition, identifying commonalities and differences among some of them. Finally, we review recent studies of conditioned inhibition. Some of the new findings contribute to rejecting early critiques of conditioned inhibition and others further elucidate the nature of this phenomenon. A new set of studies suggests that a deficit in conditioned inhibition characterizes some psychiatric conditions, illustrating its translational importance. We believe that new generations of researchers will benefit from being aware of past controversies and how they may have shaped the current conception of conditioned inhibition.
... These phenomena were interpreted as a restrengthening of the US representation (Rescorla and Heth 1975; Rescorla and Cunningham 1977). The theory (Rescorla 1979) grounded on these results was later introduced as that a release from inhibition may underlie the reinstatement phenomenon. During extinction the " CS+ – US association " is thought to be inhibited by formation of an " extinction context –no US " memory that " masks " the original learning (Rescorla 1979 ). ...
... The theory (Rescorla 1979) grounded on these results was later introduced as that a release from inhibition may underlie the reinstatement phenomenon. During extinction the " CS+ – US association " is thought to be inhibited by formation of an " extinction context –no US " memory that " masks " the original learning (Rescorla 1979 ). Reexposure of the US during reinstatement (in the inhibitory extinction context) unmasks or restores the excitatory CS– US association consequently leading to reinstatement at test in the same context. ...
... Reexposure of the US during reinstatement (in the inhibitory extinction context) unmasks or restores the excitatory CS– US association consequently leading to reinstatement at test in the same context. In other words, the extinction context acquires the ability to enhance the threshold at which the CS– US association is activated during extinction and US-alone reexposure during reinstatement reduces this threshold, which subsequently leads to ROF to previously extinguished CSs (Rescorla and Cunningham 1977; Rescorla 1979). The above prediction however is only valid when extinction, reinstatement, and test context are identical, as commonly done in these early studies. ...
... As Rescorla (1979;2004a) has repeatedly noted, spontaneous recovery by itself does not provide evidence that there has been no removal of the original learning; only that at least some learning survived extinction. Therefore, the associative-loss models can still anticipate recovery if, for example, extinction is incomplete. ...
... Similarly to the previous account, Rescorla (1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1978) offered another non-associative view of extinction, one that emphasized its role in attenuating the processing of the US. According to this view, the CS always evokes the representation of the US, but the absence of the latter during extinction attenuates its representation. ...
... By contrast, the vast majority of the models view time as the medium where changes in psychological processes related to learning occur but not an aspect of past experience that is explicitly represented. For example, with the passage of time the activation threshold for extinction rises (Kraemer & Spear, 1993), the extinction temporal context changes (Bouton, 1991(Bouton, , 1993, the inhibition that occurred in extinction fades (Hull, 1943;Pavlov, 1927;Rescorla, 1979Rescorla, , 1993aWagner, 1981), or the conditioned and unconditioned elements reach an equilibrium (Estes, 1955b;Estes & Burke, 1953). In none of these interpretations is time treated as part of the learned content. ...
... These phenomena were interpreted as a restrengthening of the US representation (Rescorla and Heth 1975;Rescorla and Cunningham 1977). The theory (Rescorla 1979) grounded on these results was later introduced as that a release from inhibition may underlie the reinstatement phenomenon. During extinction the "CS+ -US association" is thought to be inhibited by formation of an "extinction context -no US" memory that "masks" the original learning (Rescorla 1979). ...
... The theory (Rescorla 1979) grounded on these results was later introduced as that a release from inhibition may underlie the reinstatement phenomenon. During extinction the "CS+ -US association" is thought to be inhibited by formation of an "extinction context -no US" memory that "masks" the original learning (Rescorla 1979). Reexposure of the US during reinstatement (in the inhibitory extinction context) unmasks or restores the excitatory CS-US association consequently leading to reinstatement at test in the same context. ...
... Reexposure of the US during reinstatement (in the inhibitory extinction context) unmasks or restores the excitatory CS-US association consequently leading to reinstatement at test in the same context. In other words, the extinction context acquires the ability to enhance the threshold at which the CS-US association is activated during extinction and US-alone reexposure during reinstatement reduces this threshold, which subsequently leads to ROF to previously extinguished CSs (Rescorla and Cunningham 1977;Rescorla 1979). The above prediction however is only valid when extinction, reinstatement, and test context are identical, as commonly done in these early studies. ...
In human research, studies of return of fear (ROF) phenomena, and reinstatement in particular, began only a decade ago and recently are more widely used, e.g., as outcome measures for fear/extinction memory manipulations (e.g., reconsolidation). As reinstatement research in humans is still in its infancy, providing an overview of its stability and boundary conditions and summarizing methodological challenges is timely to foster fruitful future research. As a translational endeavor, clarifying the circumstances under which (experimental) reinstatement occurs may offer a first step toward understanding relapse as a clinical phenomenon and pave the way for the development of new pharmacological or behavioral ways to prevent ROF. The current state of research does not yet allow pinpointing these circumstances in detail and we hope this review will aid the research field to advance in this direction. As an introduction, we begin with a synopsis of rodent work on reinstatement and theories that have been proposed to explain the findings. The review however mainly focuses on reinstatement in humans. We first describe details and variations of the experimental setup in reinstatement studies in humans and give a general overview of results. We continue with a compilation of possible experimental boundary conditions and end with the role of individual differences and behavioral and/or pharmacological manipulations. Furthermore, we compile important methodological and design details on the published studies in humans and end with open research questions and some important methodological and design recommendations as a guide for future research.
... An alternative view was advanced by Rescorla and his colleagues (e.g., Rescorla, 1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1977, 1978Rescorla & Heth, 1973), who claimed that extinction causes a reduction in US processing. Again, spontaneous recovery results from a return over time of processing of the depressed element. ...
... A third conclusion permitted by these data is that recovery can occur to one CS after spontaneous recovery and reextinction of a second (Figure 4). Such a result creates problems, both for the fatigue account of recovery (Hull, 1943) and for the US processing view (e.g., Rescorla, 1979). According to the fatigue model, spontaneous recovery reflects the dissipation of response fatigue over the postextinction delay interval. ...
... Evidence inconsistent with two nonassociative loss models of extinction and spontaneous recovery was also obtained. The finding that recovery occurs after extinction training in the presence of a robust US representation (Experiment 2) does not support the US processing view of spontaneous recovery (e.g., Rescorla, 1979)-neither does the observation of recovery to one CS immediately after the extinction of a second (Experiment 2). The reactive inhibition or fatigue theory of Hull (1943) runs into similar trouble. ...
Four experiments used an autoshaping preparation with pigeons to examine the mechanisms underlying spontaneous recovery following extinction training. Experiment 1 served to establish the optimum conditions for studying recovery in autoshaping. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that recovery occurs during testing in the middle of a session in the presence of contextual cues uniquely associated with extinction. Such findings are inconsistent with several popular models of extinction. Experiment 4 involved endowing a stimulus with both excitatory and inhibitory properties. Both properties were reduced by extinction training and then recovered after a delay. This result is inconsistent with the notion that extinction training generates inhibitory associations that fade over time. However, it supports the idea that extinction results in a temporary reduction in processing of the conditioned stimulus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Though implicit, the inhibition is not well hidden. It sounds rather like Konorski's (1948) and Rescorla's (1979) threshold views. Note that the retardation effect is mediated by past experience. ...
... Indeed, the literature we have reviewed indicates that a simple excitor will not pass a summation test; the CS must have a history of negative contingency training (e.g., Schachtman et al., 1987: />(US|CS) > 0 but below P(US| no CS). Nelson (1987) thought that her results were better explained by postulating that the CS that signaled a reduction in US probability might carry an inhibitory component that was only active in the presence of another stimulus that was concurrently excitatory (e.g., Konorski, 1948;Rescorla, 1979). If so, and if inhibition is an antiexcitation process, the magnitude of inhibitory summation may depend on the associative value of the test excitor. ...
... Results like these caused Rescorla (1979), but few others, to quickly abandon the view that inhibition was the opposite of excitation in favor of a threshold view of inhibition (Konorski, 1948). On this view, inhibition has an antagonistic effect on excitation by raising the threshold for activation of the US representation. ...
R. A. Rescorla's (1969) recommendations concerning the logical and empirical operations for inferring Pavlovian conditioned inhibition were examined in light of modern comparison theories of Pavlovian conditioning and new data that question whether excitation and inhibition are opposite ends of a single continuum of associative strength. This reanalysis confirms Rescorla's dictum that the summation and retardation tests are a sufficient basis for inferring inhibition. No theoretical or empirical challenges since 1969 undermine the heuristic or explanatory power of that concept. However, passing both of the 2 operational tests may not be necessary: A conditioned stimulus/stimuli (CS) may be inhibitory, yet may not pass one or the other test. Recent changes in the conception of inhibition are also reviewed, and it is suggested that there may be other forms of associatively based inhibition that are not at all antagonistic to excitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... There are at least three ways in which this might occur: Midazolam may lead to a contextually controlled regulation in processing of the CS, of the US, or of the CS-US association. Thus, the context-specific deficit in expression of conditioned fear caused by midazolam would be mediated by mechanisms that are similar to those held to underlie latent inhibition and extinction (Bouton, 1993;Pearce & Hall, 1980;Rescorla, 1979;Robbins, 1990;Wagner, 1981). Indeed, the effect of midazolam bears a close empirical resemblance to the decrements in conditioned responding produced by latent inhibition and extinction, in that all three effects are context specific and subject to spontaneous recovery of conditioned responding after a delay. ...
... If GABA transmission does contribute to the acquisition of extinction, then benzodiazepines, by potentiating GABA, might engage the extinction process. Some contemporary accounts describe extinction as involving the acquisition of an inhibitory association between the CS and the US that opposes the original excitatory association between those stimuli (Rescorla, 1979;Wagner, 1981). Thus, benzodiazepines may disrupt fear conditioning by causing rats to acquire an inhibitory CS-US association that is mediated by GABA, while permitting the rats to acquire an excitatory CS-US association. ...
Rats were injected with a benzodiazepine (midazolam) and shocked after presentation of an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS). They were then tested for fear reactions (freezing) to the CS in either the original context or a 2nd context after either a short (1-day) or long (21-day) retention interval. Rats tested in the original context froze less after 1 day than rats tested after that interval in the 2nd context or rats tested after 21 days. Moreover, rats tested after the long interval in the original context froze less than rats tested after that interval in the 2nd context. Therefore, midazolam does not impair the acquisition of conditioned fear but regulates when and where that fear is expressed. These effects of midazolam were interpreted as a contextually controlled deficit in the expression of conditioned fear that is similar to that associated with latent inhibition and extinction (M. E. Bouton, 1993).
... Of the experiments reviewed in this section on hybrid procedures, only one-the experiment by Rescorla (1979) in which the conditioning of a neutral stimulus that had earlier been present during the extinction of an excitor was found to be retarded-provided persuasive evidence of inhibition. The results of the other experiments are open to a variety of alternative interpretations, such as change in attention, US habituation, contextual blocking, afferent interaction, reduced generalized excitation, and external inhibition of instrumental baselines. ...
... The issue in experiments purporting to demonstrate inhibition is, after all, whether an inhibitory interpretation is required. For the purist, in fact, even the reasonably convincing experiments-in all of which the target treatment was some variation of A+/AB-training and in all but one of which (Rescorla, 1979) the control treatment was some variation of A+/B-training-leave something to be desired. One might ask, for example, about the stimulus specificity of the results (since the stimuli serving as A and B were counterbalanced in none of them) and about the role played by the inconsistent reinforcement of A in A+/AB-training. ...
It is commonly believed that both a summation test and a retardation test should be used to determine whether a stimulus becomes inhibitory in consequence of some specified treatment, because the 2 tests together rule out alternative interpretations. Depending, however, on the choice of control treatments, a single test may provide credible evidence of inhibition or both together may not. A comprehensive review of the 2-test literature shows that suitable controls have been used only rarely and that compelling evidence of inhibition is correspondingly rare. The only such evidence now available is provided by retardation tests in experiments with some variation of A+/AB− training as the putatively inhibitor treatment.
... The most theoretically sound experimental model of safety learning is arguably 'Pavlovian conditioned inhibition' (Boddez et al., 2014a), but this paradigm has rarely been applied in human studies. Its absence is surprising given its clinical relevance, its ubiquity in studies of non-human animals (Savastano et al., 1999;Sosa and Ramírez, 2019), and the conceptual influence that conditioned inhibition has had on experimental psychology and learning theory (Bouton, 2007;Gershman and Niv, 2012;Pavlov, 1927;Pearce and Bouton, 2001;Rescorla, 1969bRescorla, , 1979. Previous reviews of conditioned inhibition have summarised evidence drawn across different species (human and non-human) and associative learning modalities, including aversive and appetitive conditioning (Savastano et al., 1999;Sosa and Ramírez, 2019). ...
... Theoretically, 'conditioned inhibition' can be generated in any experiment where a cue (CS) is associated with the absence of an outcome (i.e., the US) (Baetu and Baker, 2016;Konorski, 1967;Savastano et al., 1999). Candidate models of conditioned inhibition (or safety learning) might therefore include any experiment featuring non-reinforced stimuli, including fear extinction and differential conditioning (Maes and Vossen, 1996;Miller et al., 1991;Rescorla, 1979;Urcelay and Miller, 2006). Further, while threat learning is easily inferred from responses to CS + or a CS+ > CS-comparison (Lonsdorf et al., 2017), responses to safe cues can resemble a non-response, indistinguishable from those elicited by neutral or meaningless events (Rescorla, 1969b). ...
Safety learning occurs when an otherwise neutral stimulus comes to signal the absence of threat, allowing organisms to use safety information to inhibit fear and anxiety in nonthreatening environments. Although it continues to emerge as a topic of relevance in biological and clinical psychology, safety learning remains inconsistently defined and under-researched. Here, we analyse the Pavlovian conditioned inhibition paradigm and its application to the study of safety learning in humans. We discuss existing studies; address outstanding theoretical considerations; and identify prospects for its further application. Though Pavlovian conditioned inhibition presents a theoretically sound model of safety learning, it has been investigated infrequently, with decade-long interims between some studies, and notable methodological variability. Consequently, we argue that the full potential of conditioned inhibition as a model for human safety learning remains untapped, and propose that it could be revisited as a framework for addressing timely questions in the behavioural and clinical sciences.
... This decline in behaviour is not likely to be dependent on an associative process as might be the case in animals with an intact OFC, but rather a non-associative process such as habituation to the CS. Rescorla (1979) and Delamater (2004) argue that Fig. 6. A simplified representation of the associative structure that might underlie Pavlovian learning. ...
... However, non-reinforced presentations of the second excitatory CS prior to test will dampen the US representation further and reduce the reinstatement effect. Based on these findings, the authors argue that increased US activation threshold is a possible non-associative source of protection from extinction of CS-US associations (Rescorla, 1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1978). In associative models, the level of US node activation determines the amount of outcome expectancy and therefore the amount of extinction learning that can occur. ...
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is argued to be the neural locus of Pavlovian outcome expectancies. Reinforcement learning theories argue that extinction learning in Pavlovian procedures is caused by the discrepancy between the expected value of the outcome (US) that is elicited by a predictive stimulus (CS), and the lack of experienced US. If the OFC represents Pavlovian outcome expectancies that are necessary for extinction learning, then disrupting OFC function prior to extinction training should impair extinction learning. This was tested. In experiment 1, Long Evans rats received infusions of saline or muscimol targeting the lateral OFC prior to three appetitive Pavlovian extinction sessions. Muscimol infused into the OFC disrupted between-session but not within-session extinction behaviour. This finding was not due to muscimol infusions disrupting the memory consolidation process per se as there was no effect of muscimol infusion when administered immediately post session (experiment 2). These findings support a role for the OFC in representing outcome expectancies that are necessary for learning. A number of ways in which disrupting outcome expectancy information might block learning will be discussed in the context of traditional associative learning theories and the associative structures they depend on.
... The most frequently observed outcome is that A becomes excitatory and B inhibitory with regard to the US. One interpretation is that A and B develop excitatory and inhibitory associations with that US, respectively (e.g., Rescorla, 1979). ...
... Moreover, these experiments document further the resistance of inhibition to attenuation by separate presentation, but they provide no support for the proposition that this resistance is attributable to associations between the excitor and the inhibitor. Apparently, a more fundamental change in theories of inhibition remains necessary to deal with its resistance to extinction (see Rescorla, 1979). ...
Four experiments with 64 female Carneaux pigeons in an autoshaping preparation explored Pavlovian conditioned inhibition. Exp I paired 2 line orientations with food but deleted food after separate presentation of 1 of 2 colors and after a compound of a 2nd color with 1 of the line orientations. The color nonreinforced in compound with an orientation gained more inhibition than did the separately presented color, as measured by its ability to interfere with responding to both orientations. However, transfer of that color's inhibition to the new orientation was incomplete. Moreover, exposure to an extinction treatment prior to the transfer test did not diminish its inhibition. Exps II, III, and IV assessed the role of potential color–orientation associations in both of these latter phenomena and attempted to reduce their contribution through separate presentations. Such presentations did improve transfer of a color's inhibition to a new excitor but had no effect on the extinction of that inhibition. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Nevertheless, it should be noted that an occasion-setting function of the context acquired during extinction is only one of the hypotheses regarding the context's role in extinction and reinstatement. Rescorla (1979) proposed that extinction increases the threshold for the CR because the extinction-associated context becomes inhibitory (Rescorla and Cunningham 1977;Rescorla 1979). During reinstatement, the US presentation in the same context might weaken this inhibition and reestablishes a response to the extinguished CS (Westbrook et al. 2002). ...
... Nevertheless, it should be noted that an occasion-setting function of the context acquired during extinction is only one of the hypotheses regarding the context's role in extinction and reinstatement. Rescorla (1979) proposed that extinction increases the threshold for the CR because the extinction-associated context becomes inhibitory (Rescorla and Cunningham 1977;Rescorla 1979). During reinstatement, the US presentation in the same context might weaken this inhibition and reestablishes a response to the extinguished CS (Westbrook et al. 2002). ...
During extinction animals experience that the previously learned association between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) no longer holds true. Accordingly, the conditioned response (CR) to the CS decreases. This decrease of the CR can be reversed by presentation of the US alone following extinction, a phenomenon termed reinstatement. Reinstatement and two additional phenomena, spontaneous recovery and renewal, indicate that the original CS-US association is not lost through extinction but can be reactivated through different processes. In honeybees (Apis mellifera), spontaneous recovery, i.e., the time-dependent return of the CR, has been demonstrated, suggesting that also in these insects the original CS-US association is not lost during extinction. To support this notion, we ask whether honeybees show reinstatement after extinction. In vertebrates reinstatement is context-dependent, so we examined whether the same holds true for honeybees. We demonstrate reinstatement in restrained honeybees and show that reinstatement is context-dependent. Furthermore, we show that an alteration of the color of light illuminating the experimental setup suffices to indicate a contextual change. We conclude that in honeybees the initially formed CS-US memory is not lost after extinction. Rather, honeybees might learn about the context during extinction. This enables them to adequately retrieve one of the two opposing memories about the CS that have been formed after extinction.
... This view aligns with proposals that conditioned inhibitors cancel or reduce outcome-specific expectancies generated by conditioned excitors, in order to estimate outcome probability. However, in the absence of such backdrop expectancies, inhibitors should be associatively inert (Konorski, 1948;Lysle & Fowler, 1985;Miller & Matzel, 1988;Rescorla, 1979). That is, conditioned inhibition depends on excitation not only for its acquisition but also for its expression. ...
... Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joseph Farley, Program in Neural Sciences, Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405. lov, 1927), higher order conditioning phenomena such as sensory preconditioning (Brogden, 1939) and second order conditioning (Rescorla, 1980), conditioned inhibition (Kaplan & Hearst, 1985;Rescorla, 1979), configural conditioning, and contextual conditioning (Balsam & Tomie, 1985). To study such phenomena in Hermissenda, a stimulus other than light is required that can be associated with the same UCS (rotation) used routinely to condition reductions in phototaxis. ...
Bite–strike responses of Hermissenda crassicornis, elicited by chemosensory stimulation of the lips, were found to be modified when food extracts were paired with rotation-produced stimulatioin of the statocysts. Animals that received repeated pairings of an extract of 1 food (conditioned stimulus, CS) with rotation exhibited suppressed bite–strike responses to that food for up to 48 hr after training. This suppression was usually specific to the trained food and was pairing-specific as well. Discriminative conditioning was also demonstrated. Animals trained was 1 CS paired with rotation and a second CS that was unpaired (CS−) showed suppressed bite–strike responses to the first CS. The results demonstrate that Hermissenda can learn to avoid foods that reliably signal an aversive event and may allow an analysis of higher order conditioning phenomena.
... It is important to address that although the present data indicates that the extinction cue attenuates reinstatement through favoring the remembrance of extinction learning, the experiment reported here cannot clarify the specific mechanism underlying these reductive effects. Thus, subsequent research should provide experiments that can elucidate whether the extinction cue is acting as a negative occasion setter by activating the food-no outcome memory and weakening the predictive judgement (see Brooks & Bouton, 1994;Brooks & Bowker, 2001), or through generating a direct inhibitory association with the consequence (when presented in simultaneous compound with an extinguishing food), playing the role of a conditioned inhibitor (e. g., Rescorla, 1979), or perhaps participants perceived the extinction cue and the context as a single unit (e.g., Pearce, 1994) thereby modulating participants' responses depending on the similarities between the configural extinction pattern (with the extinction cue) and the configural testing pattern (without the extinction cue). ...
An experiment evaluated whether a stimulus associated with extinction can attenuate the reinstatement of a
previously extinguished predictive learning relationship in humans. Participants learned a specific relationship
between two cues (X and Y) and two outcomes (O1 and O2) during the first phase. Throughout extinction, both
cues were presented without outcomes. Then, testing was conducted after exposure to the original outcomes.
We found a reduction of the reinstatement effect when participants received a cue associated with extinction, but not when testing involved a novel cue. This result indicates that the reductive effect depends on the cue’s specific association with extinction. The findings are consistent with the theoretical view that explains reinstatement as a failure to retrieve the extinction learning.
... As noted earlier, it is problematic for the model, which incorrectly predicts a loss of inhibition. Rescorla (1979) pointed out that one way to accommodate this finding is in terms of the theory put forward by Konorski (1948). According to this theory, an inhibitor acts to increase the threshold required for an excitor to activate the US (outcome) representation. ...
One of the many strengths of the Rescorla and Wagner (1972) model is that it accounts for both excitatory and inhibitory learning using a single error-correction mechanism. However, it makes the counterintuitive prediction that nonreinforced presentations of an inhibitory stimulus will lead to extinction of its inhibitory properties. Zimmer-Hart and Rescorla (1974) provided the first of several animal conditioning studies that contradicted this prediction. However, the human data are more mixed. Accordingly, we set out to test whether extinction of an inhibitor occurs in human causal learning after simultaneous feature negative training with a conventional unidirectional outcome. In 2 experiments with substantial sample sizes, we found no evidence of extinction after presentations of the inhibitory stimulus alone in either a summation test or causal ratings. By contrast, 2 "no-modulation" procedures that contradicted the original training contingencies successfully reversed inhibition. These results did not differ substantially as a function of participants' self-reported causal structures (configural/modulation/prevention). We hypothesize that inhibitory learning may be intrinsically modulatory, analogous to negative occasion-setting, even with simultaneous training. This hypothesis would explain why inhibition is reversed by manipulations that contradict modulation but not by simple extinction, as well as other properties of inhibitory learning such as imperfect transfer to another excitor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... By focusing on theoretical and experimental studies with animals and their implications for clinical settings, we propose further collaboration between basic and clinical studies. Bouton, 1991Bouton, , 1993Bouton, , 2004Pavov, 1927Pavov, 1937Rescorla, 1979 The subjects were rats, unless otherwise noted in the Remark section. ...
Exposure is a well-known efficient therapeutic technique for anxiety disorders or irrational fear. The present article reviews the behavioral mechanisms of fear reduction in exposure-based therapies including simple exposure and systematic desensitization. The traditional and current theories of associative learning of Pavlovian conditioning, extinction, and response reemergence are applicable to acquisition, treatment, and relapse of fear. Despite recent transactions between basic animal research and human clinical studies on simple exposure therapy, little attention is paid to the counterconditioning process in systematic desensitization. By focusing on theoretical and experimental studies with animals and their implications for clinical settings, we propose further collaboration between basic and clinical studies.
... La pregunta de interés es qué ocurre con estas asociaciones durante la fase de extinción, ya que en ésta el EC se empareja con la omisión del reforzamiento. Bouton supone que al finalizar la extinción la asociación establecida durante adquisición permanece intacta, pero que se establece una nueva asociación de carácter inhibitorio, entre las representaciones del EC y del EI (Konorski, 1948;Pearce & Hall, 1980;Rescorla, 1979). Como resultado de este proceso el significado del EC se hace ambiguo, es decir, tiene dos diferentes asociaciones con el mismo EI, una excitatoria y otra inhibitoria. ...
... La pregunta de interés es qué ocurre con estas asociaciones durante la fase de extinción, ya que en ésta el EC se empareja con la omisión del reforzamiento. Bouton supone que al finalizar la extinción la asociación establecida durante adquisición permanece intacta, pero que se establece una nueva asociación de carácter inhibitorio, entre las representaciones del EC y del EI (Konorski, 1948;Pearce & Hall, 1980;Rescorla, 1979). Como resultado de este proceso el significado del EC se hace ambiguo, es decir, tiene dos diferentes asociaciones con el mismo EI, una excitatoria y otra inhibitoria. ...
Este libro representa una muestra de la investigación desarrollada en el campo del análisis de la conducta, tanto en su investigación básica, como en el desarrollo de sus aplicaciones. Su objetivo es socializar el trabajo de académicos pertenecientes a universidades nacionales e internacionales, que con su labor docente e investigativa fortalecen la perspectiva científica de la psicología.
Junto con los volúmenes que le preceden, cubre cabalmente con dos necesidades de la psicología: dar a conocer desarrollos actuales en el análisis de la conducta y aproximaciones teóricas y empíricas afines, así como diseminar de manera no lucrativa el conocimiento generado en laboratorios y ámbitos especializados. Estas metas son alcanzadas gracias a que los diferentes autores de cada capítulo han contribuido de manera desinteresada, invirtiendo tiempo y esfuerzo en la escritura de sus investigaciones, hallazgos y experiencia como académicos en el área.
... By contrast, pigeons do show specific behavioral changes during such trials: they withdraw and turn away from a visually localized CS (Wasserman, Franklin, & Hearst, 1974;see also Hollis, Martin, Cadieux, & Colbert, 1984). This is a theoretically important result because it suggests that conditioned inhibition may exert direct control of response selection (Kaplan & Hearst, 1985), different from the modulatory role on some aspect of excitatory associations postulated by some models (e.g., Lysle & Fowler, 1985;Miller & Schachtman, 1985;Rescorla, 1979). To account for the pigeon's withdrawal behavior from a CS-, Miller and Schachtman (1985) suggested that the pigeons turn toward the context, which is the most appetitive cue available. ...
A procedure to study associative learning in didelphid marsupials (Didelphis albiventris and Lutreolina crassicaudata) was developed, based on the use of an appetitive unconditioned stimulus, discrete conditioned stimuli, and multiple-behavior recordings of freely moving animals. In Experiments 1 and 2, three basic conditioning phenomena were reported: differential conditioning, stimulus reversal, and summation. A specific behavior developed during the excitatory signal, independently of the particular stimulus involved, consisting of rhythmic, goal-centered, sagittal head movements, highly similar across subjects and species. Unlike previous experiments on Pavlovian conditioning in marsupials, the use of differential conditioning in within-subjects designs, with appropriate counterbalance of stimuli, precludes interpretation of these results in terms of pseudoconditioning, sensitization, or sensory-perceptual effects. These results open the possiblity for systematic research on the comparative, developmental, and neuropsychological aspects of learning to which marsupials can contribute as models.
... La pregunta de interés es qué ocurre con estas asociaciones durante la fase de extinción, ya que en ésta el EC se empareja con la omisión del reforzamiento. Bouton supone que al finalizar la extinción la asociación establecida durante adquisición permanece intacta, pero que se establece una nueva asociación de carácter inhibitorio, entre las representaciones del EC y del EI (Konorski, 1948;Pearce & Hall, 1980;Rescorla, 1979). Como resultado de este proceso el significado del EC se hace ambiguo, es decir, tiene dos diferentes asociaciones con el mismo EI, una excitatoria y otra inhibitoria. ...
La importancia de los estímulos contextuales en los procesos de aprendizaje y memoria se estableció
desde los trabajos pioneros de Pavlov (1927). Más adelante, las investigaciones sobre cognición humana
confirmaron la relevancia de los estímulos contextuales tanto en la codificación como en la recuperación
de ítems en estudios de la memoria humana (Golden & Baddeley, 1975; Tulving, 1974). Sin embargo,
el reciente interés que los teóricos del aprendizaje animal han manifestado por el rol que desempeña el
contexto en la recuperación de conductas extinguidas se produjo debido al descubrimiento del efecto
llamado renovación contextual (Bouton & Bolles, 1979). La renovación contextual y otros efectos similares
han permitido una mejor comprensión de las formas en que el contexto modula lo que se recuerda y lo
que se olvida (Bouton & Woods, 2008; Rosas, Todd & Bouton, 2013). En el presente trabajo se presenta
una breve revisión de la investigación que se ha conducido en los últimos años en el laboratorio de
Aprendizaje y Adaptación de la Facultad de Psicología; dichos experimentos se diseñaron con la finalidad
de contribuir a la comprensión de los mecanismos que subyacen a la dependencia contextual de las
memorias condicionadas en animales y humanos.
... Consequently, rats receiving yohimbine before C-IA extinction trials should display fewer copulatory behaviors than control rats. This prediction is based on evidence that extinction involves the formation of new associations, rather than the mere dissolution of previously established associative bonds (Rescorla, 1979). Alternatively, if yohimbine's effects on C-IA acquisition are mediated by an increase in sexual motivation, then yohimbine should increase copulatory behaviors during C-IA extinction. ...
Prior research has demonstrated that both yohimbine, an alpha2-adrenergic antagonist, and naloxone, an opiate antagonist, facilitate components of copulatory behaviors in nonstressed male rats. In the present experiments, we demonstrate that these drugs differentially affect copulatory behaviors when the behavioral testing situation contained an aversive element. Male rats received an injection of lithium chloride (0.3 M, 20 ml/kg, ip) immediately after each encounter with an estrous female. Consequently, male copulatory behaviors gradually declined during successive test sessions. These male rats also received ip injections of either yohimbine (2 mg/kg/ml), naloxone (4 mg/kg/ml), or isotonic saline 20 min prior to each copulation test. Yohimbine-treated rats were more likely to copulate than control rats during both acquisition and extinction of lithium chloride-induced associative inhibition of copulatory behavior. Conversely, naloxone-treated rats were less likely to copulate than control rats during both acquisition and extinction. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that yohimbine increases sexual motivation in the male rat and limit the generality of the excitatory effects of naloxone on copulatory behaviors.
... La pregunta de interés es qué ocurre con estas asociaciones durante la fase de extinción, ya que en ésta el EC se empareja con la omisión del reforzamiento. Bouton supone que al finalizar la extinción la asociación establecida durante adquisición permanece intacta, pero que se establece una nueva asociación de carácter inhibitorio, entre las representaciones del EC y del EI (Konorski, 1948;Pearce & Hall, 1980;Rescorla, 1979). Como resultado de este proceso el significado del EC se hace ambiguo, es decir, tiene dos diferentes asociaciones con el mismo EI, una excitatoria y otra inhibitoria. ...
La ciencia como práctica compartida tiene como funciones principales, por una parte, generar nuevo conocimiento y por otra, replantear o reformular en los casos en que sea necesario, algunos de sus fundamentos. Esto sólo es posible en la medida en que investigadores ya consolidados dan la oportunidad a que noveles estudiantes se incorporen al gremio, siendo tanto los primeros como los segundos críticos y propositivos. Así, el estatus que guarda la Psicología contemporánea requiere de espacios de difusión que posibiliten la discusión conceptual y metodológica que auspicie nuevas perspectivas en el abordaje de los eventos psicológicos. En este sentido, la presente obra intenta difundir algunos debates y reflexiones acerca del análisis del comportamiento y sus aplicaciones a diferentes áreas en desarrollo.
... The sequence of training phases is equivalent to Pavlov's A+/AB-conditioned inhibition paradigm, except that the context replaces the excitatory CS (labeled "A") and the two types of trial are presented sequentially, rather than concurrently. There is evidence suggesting that serial A+ AB-training can result in the development of inhibitory conditioning to B (Rescorla, 1979). The second problem arises because retardation of CS conditioning could potentially follow from contextual blocking, which occurs when contextual conditioning retards subsequent CS conditioning (Tomie, 1976). ...
Experiments designed to study latent inhibition typically use as a control condition a group of ani- mals preexposed to the training context, but not to the conditioned stimulus (i.e., the context control). Experiments using the rat autoshaping preparation demonstrate that nonreinforced preexposure to the context facilitates subsequent conditioning to a discrete stimulus, particularly with large reinforcers (Experiment 1) and dramatically enhances performance under the unfavorable conditions posed by massed training (Experiment 2). Furthermore, it is nonreinforced preexposure to the training context, and not to a nontraining context, that enhances autoshaping performance (Experiment 3). The facilita- tory effect of nonreinforced preexposure to the training context questions the exclusive use of the context control in latent inhibition experiments and suggests that findings based on such comparisons need to be reevaluated. Pavlovian conditioning resulting from the pairing of a conditioned stimu- lus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) can be interfered with by nonrein- forced preexposure to the CS, a phenomenon called latent inhibition or the CS- preexposure effect. The CS-preexposure effect has been reported in numerous conditioning preparations (Lubow, 1989). In a typical demonstration, Tranberg and Rilling (1978) pretrained pigeons to eat from the food tray and subsequently as- signed them to two conditions. In one condition, pigeons received 50 nonrein- forced presentations of a green key light in each of 10 sessions, followed by four 50-trial sessions of autoshaping in which the green key light (the CS) was paired with food (the US). Acquisition after CS preexposure was retarded relative to the performance of a group preexposed to the context but not to the CS (i.e., the con- text-control group). There are two problems with this typical demonstration of latent inhibi- tion: the exclusive use of a context control and the food pretraining procedure. Consider, first, Tranberg and Rilling's (1978) exclusive use of the context control to assess the presence of the CS-preexposure effect. A survey of publications in 17 journals during the period 1996-2001, using PubMed and PsycInfo, and "latent inhibition" and "CS preexposure" as the key words supported the assertion that the context control is the most popular control procedure in the literature on the CS-
... Typically, theories in classical conditioning have focused on CS extinction and spontaneous recovery and may not be sufficiently general to accommodate results from US extinction and spontaneous recovery. For example, theories suggesting that CS extinction results from a loss in US processing and spontaneous recovery results from a recovery in this processing (Rescorla, 1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1977, 1978Rescorla & Heth, 1975) seem less applicable to US extinction and spontaneous recovery, since, presumably, US processing is maintained in US extinction. Similarly, a theory by Robbins (1990) suggesting that a temporary decline in attention to a CS contributes to extinction and that a recovery over time in attention contributes to spontaneous recovery also seems less applicable to US extinction and spontaneous recovery. ...
When conditioned stimulus (CS)–unconditioned stimulus (US) pairings are given in one context (Context A), and CS extinction is given in a different context (Context B), responding recovers when the CS is tested in Context A (so-called ABA renewal). In addition to ABA renewal, AAB renewal has also recently been shown (Bouton & Ricker, 1994). Using an appetitive conditioning preparation with rats, the present studies tested for ABA and AAB renewal to the signal value of a US. In four experiments, US signal value consistently showed ABA, but not AAB, renewal. Further, after acquisition, there was some evidence that a context change disrupted US signal value or that responding in extinction was less persistent with a context change. Implications for theories of renewal and the context specificity of conditioning are considered.
... The results from these experiments, however, appear to be problematic for at least two other theories of classical conditioning extinction. For example, Rescorla has suggested that classical conditioning extinction may result from a loss in US processing and spontaneous recovery may result from a recovery in this processing (Rescorla, 1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1977, 1978 AID L&M 0953 / ae04$$$$83 01-27-97 23:20:23 lmas AP: L&M Rescorla & Heth, 1975). Especially favorable to this theory is the finding that a US-alone presentation following extinction partially reinstates the con- ditioned response (Rescorla & Heth, 1975). ...
When an unconditioned stimulus (US) signals a second US, magazine entries increase after the first US (acquisition) and magazine entries decline when US-alone presentations follow acquisition (extinction). Experiments 1 and 2 replicated these effects and, in addition, tested for spontaneous recovery. In spontaneous recovery, responding in extinction recovers if some time elapses before a stimulus is tested again. Spontaneous recovery was shown when subjects received four US-alone presentations in each daily extinction session (Experiment 1) or when a 3-week testing delay followed a single US-alone presentation in each of 12 daily extinction sessions (Experiment 2). Implications for theories of extinction and spontaneous recovery are considered.
... One explanation for this outcome is that inhibitory stimuli may be ineffective when they are presented in the absence of a conditioned excitor (cf. Rescorla, 1979). If this is correct, then the expression |X -V T \ would essentially be zero when the light was presented by itself, and some other explanation is required to explain the temporary recovery in the OR produced by this manipulation. ...
Investigated the strength of the orienting response to a light in 3 inhibitory conditioning experiments, using 72 male Sprague-Dawley rats. In Exp I, the occurrence of the light was negatively correlated with food delivery; this procedure resulted in a decline in the strength of the orienting response. A more rapid decline in the strength of this response was observed in Ss receiving the light and food presented randomly or the light presented alone. In the remaining experiments, a discrimination procedure was used in which the light was presented, nonreinforced, simultaneously with a tone. On reinforced trials, the tone was presented alone and was followed either directly by food (Exp II) or by a clicker that signaled food (Exp III). The results are smiliar to those of Exp I. It is concluded that the strength of the orienting response to a light may reflect the amount of attention or central processing that it receives, which itself is determined by the accuracy with which its immediate consequences are predicted. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... By contrast, pigeons do show specific behavioral changes during such trials: they withdraw and turn away from a visually localized CS- (Wasserman, Franklin, & Hearst, 1974; see also Hollis, Martin, Cadieux, & Colbert, 1984). This is a theoretically important result because it suggests that conditioned inhibition may exert direct control of response selection (Kaplan & Hearst, 1985), different from the modulatory role on some aspect of excitatory associations postulated by some models (e.g., Lysle & Fowler, 1985;Miller & Schachtman, 1985;Rescorla, 1979). To account for the pigeon's withdrawal behavior from a CS-, Miller and Schachtman (1985) suggested that the pigeons turn toward the context, which is the most appetitive cue available. ...
A procedure to study associative learning in didelphid marsupials (
Didelphis albiventris and
Lutreolina crassicaudata) was developed, based on the use of an appetitive unconditioned stimulus, discrete conditioned stimuli, and multiple-behavior recordings of freely moving animals. In Experiments 1 and 2, three basic conditioning phenomena were reported: differential conditioning, stimulus reversal, and summation. A specific behavior developed during the excitatory signal, independently of the particular stimulus involved, consisting of rhythmic, goal-centered, sagittal head movements, highly similar across subjects and species. Unlike previous experiments on Pavlovian conditioning in marsupials, the use of differential conditioning in within-subjects designs, with appropriate counterbalance of stimuli, precludes interpretation of these results in terms of pseudoconditioning, sensitization, or sensory-perceptual effects. These results open the possiblity for systematic research on the comparative, developmental, and neuropsychological aspects of learning to which marsupials can contribute as models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... First, Nakajima (1992Nakajima ( , 1997cNakajima ( , 1998b) tried to elucidate the underlying mechanism of occasion setting. According to Rescorla (1979Rescorla ( , 1985, a feature modulates activation threshold of the US representation for the CS to elicit strong or weak responding (Figure 1a). Holland 1983,1985), however, claimed that a feature stimulus acts on specific CS-US association (Figure 1b). ...
This article addressed several important topics in the field of associative learning in nonhuman animals: event contingency, associative retardation (learned helplessness and irrelevance), occasion setting, renewal of extinguished responses, acquired equivalence and distinctiveness, differential outcome effect, and retrospective inference. These topics have been studied with Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning preparations as behavioral test tubes for assessing animals’ cognitive abilities. The empiric data are suggesting highly cognitive abilities of animals in event processing. This article also reviewed studies conducted by Japanese psychologists taking the modern associationists approach. Although activities of Japanese researchers in this field of research are high, they are required to make a more unique contribution to the field.
... (In fact, the full picture is considerably more involved than this-since the US is assumed to have separable motivational and sensory properties, each of these should be shown separately with its own node and its own antinode.) As has of-ten been noted (e.g., Rescorla, 1979b; but see also Mackintosh, 1983), the advantages bestowed by this new scheme seem to be only marginal-making the generation of inhibition in the US node a two-step process leaves the basic analysis unchanged. One possible advantage is that invoking a new structure makes it unnecessary to postulate a special inhibitory learning process-the conditions under which the CS-no-US link is formed are assumed to be the same (concurrent activation of the two nodes) as those that apply to standard excitatory conditioning. ...
The associative analysis of conditioning assumes a conceptual nervous system consisting of a set of units (nodes). Some nodes are are activated by specific external stimuli; others, when activated, result in the emission of particular patterns of behavior (responses). The behavioral changes produced by conditioning procedures are explained in terms of the formation of links between nodes that allow activity in one to excite activity in another. The aim of this chapter is to specify what nodes are involved in a given conditioning procedure and the pattern of interconnections that forms among them. Three procedures are considered: Excitatory conditioning, in which a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus reliably precedes the occurrence of an unconditioned stimulus or, for the instrumental case, in which a given response reliably produces a given outcome; inhibitory conditioning, in which the association between the relevant events is discontinued (the conditioned stimulus or the response occurs without consequence); and complex conditioning, in which the consequence of the conditioned stimulus or of the response varies according to which other events are presented. It is demonstrated that the standard assumptions of associative theory can explain the results of the first of these procedures; that the second requires the further assumption that links can inhibit the tendency of nodes to be activated; and that the last requires further new assumptions (that nodes can encode the configural properties of stimuli, or that links can operate on other links as well as on nodes, or both).
Extensive evidence has been amassed that the cerebellum, hippocampus, and associated circuitry are activated during classical conditioning of the nictitating membrane/eyeblink response. In this article, the authors argue that the cerebellum is essential to all eyeblink classical conditioning paradigms. In addition, the septohippocampal system plays a critical role when the classical conditioning paradigm requires the formation of associations in addition to the simple association between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. When only a simple conditioned stimulus–unconditioned stimulus association is needed, the septohippocampal system has a more limited, modulatory role. The neutral stimulus association versus simple association–response distinction is one of the ways in which declarative or relational memory can be separated from nondeclarative or nonrelational memory in classical conditioning paradigms.
Although the presence of social-support figures (e.g., close friends and family members) is known to increase feelings of safety, reduce threat responses, and improve health, the route by which these effects occur is not well understood. One explanation is that social-support figures are members of a powerful category of safety signals—prepared safety stimuli. Here, we review research demonstrating that social-support figures act as prepared safety stimuli and explore the impact that these unique safety stimuli have on fear-learning processes. According to recent work, the presence of social-support figures both reduces fear acquisition and enhances fear extinction, ultimately decreasing perceptions of threat. These findings shed light on the route by which social support buffers against threat and illustrate the unique properties of prepared safety stimuli and how they might be used to improve mental and physical health outcomes.
A Pavlovian appetitive conditioning preparation with rats was used to assess the effect of an extinction cue on reinstatement after extinction. Reinstatement provides an animal analog to relapses following treatment in humans; it occurs when a conditioned stimulus elicits strong conditioned responding following extinction and presentation of the unconditioned stimulus. An extinction cue is a stimulus presented during extinction of behavior controlled by the conditioned stimulus and is also presented later when the behavior would be expected to return/relapse following extinction (i.e., when reinstatement occurs). An extinction cue has been shown previously to reduce and prevent other instances of relapse analogs (spontaneous recovery and renewal). The authors tested whether an extinction cue would also reduce reinstatement, and included controls for reinstatement and for potential alternative accounts of an extinction cue’s effect on reinstatement. The extinction cue reduced reinstatement, but a cue not presented during extinction did not affect reinstatement, bearing on several alternative explanations of the reduction effect. The authors suggest the extinction cue reduces reinstatement by helping to retrieve a memory encoded during extinction, and that reinstatement is due at least in part to a failure to retrieve that extinction memory.
Computational theories of classical conditioning are theories whose propositions are stated as mathematical relationships. From such propositions one can compute, that is to say, deduce, presumed consequences for conditioned responding in circumstances addressed by the theory. This chapter is an attempt to roughly categorize and briefly summarize the major computational theories that have been developed to understand behavior in classical conditioning. It is organized around the essential ideas about conditioning that the various theories embrace. This chapter is not intended to provide a relative evaluation of the theories mentioned; to do so is considerably beyond the scope of what can be accomplished in the space available. Data are mentioned and judgments made, but only to provide understanding of the inspiration for the different models.
This chapter describes the potential explanatory power of a specific response rule and its implications for models of acquisition. This response rule is called the “comparator hypothesis.” It was originally inspired by Rescorla's contingency theory. Rescorla noted that if the number and frequency of conditioned stimulus–unconditioned stimulus (CS–US) pairings are held constant, unsignaled presentations of the US during training attenuate conditioned responding. This observation complemented the long recognized fact that the delivery of nonreinforced presentations of the CS during training also attenuates conditioned responding. The symmetry of the two findings prompted Rescorla to propose that during training, subjects inferred both the probability of the US in the presence of the CS and the probability of the US in the absence of the CS and they then established a CS–US association based upon a comparison of these quantities. The comparator hypothesis is a qualitative response rule, which, in principle, can complement any model of acquisition.
In two experiments, water-deprived rats were given a single pairing of a sucrose solution with LiCl in one context (Context 1). Some subjects then received three nonreinforced exposures to sucrose, that is, extinction, in Context 1. Other subjects received these three sucrose extinction trials in a different context (e.g., Context 2). A third group of subjects was included that received one extinction trial in each of three different contexts (Contexts 2, 3, and 4). Following this treatment, the rats were returned to Context 1 and were tested for their aversion to sucrose. Subjects given extinction trials only in one context other than the conditioning context (e.g., Context 2) yielded a greater aversion sucrose at test than subjects given extinction in Context 1, that is, a renewal effect occurred. Moreover, the groups given extinction in three different contexts exhibited attenuated renewal relative to subjects that received extinction trials only in Context 2. The discussion focuses on the possible mechanism underlying the renewal effect.
Two experiments using summation tests in conditioned suppression with rats examined whether conditioned inhibitors generated by five different conditioning procedures have an associative structure which includes collateral excitatory associations. The existence of collateral conditioned excitation was inferred from an increase in the amount of manifest conditioned inhibition after a conditioned inhibitory stimulus (CS-) extinction treatment. The five CS-s evaluated were differential, explicitly unpaired, conditional, backward, and trace. With abbreviated conditioning (Experiment 1), the differential and explicitly unpaired CS-s exhibited conditioned inhibitory properties; the conditional, backward, and trace CS-s did not. Repeated extinction presentations of the CS- in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus unmasked conditioned inhibition to the conditional, backward, and trace CS-s revealing moderate degrees of conditioned inhibition for all five CS-s. After more extensive conditioning (Experiment 2), the explicitly unpaired and conditional CS-s were strongly inhibitory and the differential and trace CS-s were moderately inhibitory. The backward CS- was not inhibitory. Repeated presentations of the CS- in extinction unmasked conditioned inhibition to trace and backward CS-s. All five CS-s were now nearly equally inhibitory. That the measured inhibitory power of backward, trace, and conditional (after few trials) CS-s can be modulated by a CS- extinction treatment suggests that they have similar associative structures and carry, in addition to inhibitory associations, collateral excitatory associations that mask the expression of conditioned inhibition.
Conditioned inhibition is a fundamental component of contemporary learning theory. Our selective review of the literature defines the termconditioned inhibitionon three levels—operational, behavioral, and theoretical—in order to evaluate the utility of the construct. Although consensus definitions are found at the operational and behavioral levels, the principal disagreement exists, not surprisingly, at the theoretical level. The comparator hypothesis suggests that the concept of inhibition is superfluous because behavior that is indicative of inhibition can be explained more parsimoniously by noninhibitory theoretical mechanisms. Furthermore, the findings that inhibition is less pervasive than and not always mutually exclusive with excitation suggest that the original view of inhibition as the opposite of conditioned excitation is no longer viable. However, rejection of the original conception of inhibition does not invalidate the theoretical utility of inhibition as a construct in other paradigms (e.g., occasion setting).
Four autoshaping experiments with pigeons investigated the associative decrement produced by nonreinforcement of stimuli with a history of partial or continuous reinforcement. In each experiment, one keylight was reinforced on a 25% schedule and one on a 100% schedule. Then nonreinforced presentations of each stimulus were accompanied by different diffuse stimuli. In each experiment, the diffuse stimulus nonreinforced in the presence of the 100% excitor developed inhibition more rapidly than the diffuse stimulus nonreinforced in the presence of the 25% excitor. This inhibition was measured by transfer to another excitor reinforced on 100% (Experiment 1) or 25% (Experiment 2) schedule. The same difference was observed when the 25% excitor underwent a period of 100% reinforcement (Experiment 3) or was associatively stronger than the 100% excitor (Experiment 4). These results suggest that partial reinforcement acts in part to reduce the subsequent effectiveness of a nonreinforcement in producing associative change. This may contribute to the partial reinforcement extinction effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Honeybees were rewarded with sucrose solution for choosing AX(a grey target, X, labelled with a distinctive stimulus, A) rather than ABX (a grey target labelled both with A and with another distinctive stimulus, B)-AX+/ABX- training. Tests of independent groups made after such training showed a clear preference not only for AX over ABX, but also for ABX over BX, and for X over BX. These experiments, along with some earlier ones to which they bring a new perspective, provide persuasive evidence, previously lacking, of inhibitory conditioning in honeybees.
Extinction of inhibition was examined in three pigeon autoshaping experiments. In Experiment 1, a sequential conditioned inhibitor
(CI) lost inhibitory power after extinction trials. In Experiment 2, this loss of inhibition was replicated, and the effect
was general to both the original target and a transfer target that was separately trained in an inhibition design. In Experiment
3, two CIs were trained simultaneously and two sequentially, and one of each was extinguished; all were tested simultaneously
and sequentially. The results show that sequential testing is a necessary component for observing loss of inhibition. This
is not consistent with an actual loss of inhibitory associations. It is suggested that the extinction trials either decrease
processing of the CI, or extinguish its excitatory properties, to which some of the inhibition may be conditioned.
The effect of training a positive discriminative stimulus (S+ ) as a signal for the nonreinforcement of an instrumental response
(S−) on the ability of that stimulus to evoke its original instrumental response was examined in three experiments using rats.
In all three experiments, two different stimuli were established as S+s for different response-outcome relations. In Experiment
1, an S+ was less effective in controlling its original response after it had undergone training as an S− for a new response
that earned the same outcome than it was after training as an S− for a response that earned a different outcome. Experiment
2 established that this effect was not mediated by Pavlovian inhibitory conditioning produced by the negative correlation
between the S+ and the outcome during S− training. Simply arranging a negative correlation between S+ and the outcome whose
occurrence it had previously signaled did not impair the ability of that S+ to elicit its original response. In Experiment
3, the response-evoking properties of an S+ were found to be undermined by using the S+ as a signal for the simple extinction
of a new response trained with the same outcome, but not with a different outcome. These results suggest that positive discriminative
stimuli use their associations with the outcomes earned in their presence to control the responses that earned those outcomes.
The issue of necessary and sufficient factors (pairing-contiguity vs. contingency-correlation) in classical (Pavlovian) excitatory
conditioning is examined: first, in terms of definitional (logical) and manipulational requirements of “necessary” and “sufficient”;
second, in terms of Boolean logic test models indicating experimental and control manipulations in tests of pairing and contingency
as necessary and sufficient factors; and, third, by a selective review of reference experiments showing appropriate experimental
and control manipulations of pairing and contingency indicated in the Boolean logic test models. Results of examination show
pairing-contiguity as the sole necessary and sufficient factor for excitatory conditioning, while contingency-correlation
is conceptualized as a modulating factor controlling minimal-maximal effects of pairingcontiguity. Reservations and diagnostic
experiments are indicated to assess effects of uncontrolled conditioned stimulus—unconditioned stimulus([`(CS)] - US)(\overline {CS} - US) probability characteristics (e.g., p (CS ∩ US)/p([`(CS)] ÇUS)(\overline {CS} \cap US) in truly random (TR) schedule manipulations). Similar analysis of conditioned inhibition reveals insufficient evidence to
support a choice among current alternatives.
In three experiments using rats, we examined the role of a discriminative stimulus (S) in governing the relation between a
response (R) and an outcome (O) in an appetitive instrumental learning paradigm. In each experiment, we attempted to distinguish
between a simple S-O association and a hierarchical relation in which S is associated with the R-O association. We used three
variations on discriminative training procedures and three different assessment techniques-for revealing the hierarchical
structure. In Experiment 1, we employed a training procedure in which S signaled a change in the R-O relation but no change
in the likelihood of O. Although such an arrangement should not produce an excitatory S-O association, it nevertheless generated
an S that controlled responding and transferred that control to other responses. In Experiment 2, we used a discrimination
procedure in which two Ss each had the same two Rs and Os occur in their presence but each S signaled that a different R-O
combination would be in effect. This design provided the opportunity for equivalent pairwise associations among S, R, and
O but unique hierarchical relations. The subjects learned the hierarchical structure, as revealed by the specific depressive
effect of a subsequent lithium-chloride-induced devaluation of O on responding only in the presence of the S in which that
response had led to that outcome. In Experiment 3, one S signaled two different R-O outcomes. Then, two new stimuli were presented
with the original S; the R-O relations were retained in the presence of one of the added stimuli but were rearranged in the
presence of the other. The added S came to control less responding when it was redundant with respect to the R-O relations
than when it was informative. Although all of the results were of modest size and each has an alternative interpretation,
together they provide converging evidence for the hierarchical role of S in controlling an R-O association.
Using a light or backshock as the reinforced CS (A) and a tone or backshock as the conditioned inhibitor (X), rabbits experienced
conditioned inhibition training in an A+/AX− paradigm. Following training, the amplitude of the unconditioned nictitating
membrane response elicited by a mild (.5-mA) paraorbital shock was measured in the presence of X and AX and expressed as a
percentage of the amplitude of the UR to the shock presented alone. In Experiment 1, the effect of X and AX on UR amplitude
for conditioned inhibition animals was compared with that of control animals treated to a variety of pretest procedures. In
general, UR amplitude in the presence of X exceeded that observed to the US presented alone. There was no consistent difference
between the experimental and control groups. In Experiments 2–5, A test trials were added as an alternative reference point.
Again, UR amplitude increased rather than decreased UR amplitude. In addition, X as a conditioned inhibitor enhanced the facilitating
effect of A on UR amplitude in four out of five experiments. These findings have implications for theories of the “locus of
action” of conditioned inhibitors.
The associative changes that occur in extinction were investigated in four instrumental learning experiments. Experiment 1
used transfer based on a shared outcome to detect the continued presence of response-outcome (R-O) and stimulus-outcome (S-O)
associations after a response had been nonreinforced in the presence of its controlling stimulus. Experiments 2–4 found that
extinction resulted in the learning not to make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus, despite those
continued R-0 and S-0 associations. These results suggest that extinction may superimpose upon those original outcome associations
an inhibitory S-R association.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.