US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?

Four experiments in rats examined whether occasion setters and target CSs play qualitatively different roles in occasion-setting discriminations. Two visual occasion setters, A and B, signalled reinforcement of two auditory target CSs, x and y, with sucrose and oil (A…x → suc, B…y → oil, A−, B−, x−,...

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Main Authors: Bonardi, Charlotte, Bartle, Craig, Jennings, Domhnall
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2012
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2667/
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author Bonardi, Charlotte
Bartle, Craig
Jennings, Domhnall
author_facet Bonardi, Charlotte
Bartle, Craig
Jennings, Domhnall
author_sort Bonardi, Charlotte
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Four experiments in rats examined whether occasion setters and target CSs play qualitatively different roles in occasion-setting discriminations. Two visual occasion setters, A and B, signalled reinforcement of two auditory target CSs, x and y, with sucrose and oil (A…x → suc, B…y → oil, A−, B−, x−, y−); in addition two transfer CSs w and z were paired with sucrose and oil (w → suc, z → oil). When w and z were substituted for x and y (A…w, B…w, A…z, B…z) more responding was observed when both stimuli had been paired with the same outcome (Experiments 1 and 3a). No effect was observed when two visual “pseudo-occasion setters”, C and D (paired with sucrose and oil in a trace relation to the US:C… → suc, D… → oil), were substituted for the occasion setters A and B (C…x, D…x, C…y, D…y; Experiments 2, 3b and 4). These results could not be explained in terms of Pavlovian summation: responding to combinations of Pavlovian CSs paired with same or different outcomes was either the same, or lower when both stimuli had been paired with the same outcome (Experiment 4). Implications of these results for theories of occasion setting and configural learning are discussed.
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spelling nottingham-26672020-05-04T20:21:30Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2667/ US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning? Bonardi, Charlotte Bartle, Craig Jennings, Domhnall Four experiments in rats examined whether occasion setters and target CSs play qualitatively different roles in occasion-setting discriminations. Two visual occasion setters, A and B, signalled reinforcement of two auditory target CSs, x and y, with sucrose and oil (A…x → suc, B…y → oil, A−, B−, x−, y−); in addition two transfer CSs w and z were paired with sucrose and oil (w → suc, z → oil). When w and z were substituted for x and y (A…w, B…w, A…z, B…z) more responding was observed when both stimuli had been paired with the same outcome (Experiments 1 and 3a). No effect was observed when two visual “pseudo-occasion setters”, C and D (paired with sucrose and oil in a trace relation to the US:C… → suc, D… → oil), were substituted for the occasion setters A and B (C…x, D…x, C…y, D…y; Experiments 2, 3b and 4). These results could not be explained in terms of Pavlovian summation: responding to combinations of Pavlovian CSs paired with same or different outcomes was either the same, or lower when both stimuli had been paired with the same outcome (Experiment 4). Implications of these results for theories of occasion setting and configural learning are discussed. Elsevier 2012-07 Article PeerReviewed Bonardi, Charlotte, Bartle, Craig and Jennings, Domhnall (2012) US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning? Behavioural Processes, 90 (3). pp. 311-322. ISSN 0376-6357 Rat Occasion setting Hierarchical Configural learning Summation http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635712000587# doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.005 doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.005
spellingShingle Rat
Occasion setting
Hierarchical
Configural learning
Summation
Bonardi, Charlotte
Bartle, Craig
Jennings, Domhnall
US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
title US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
title_full US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
title_fullStr US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
title_full_unstemmed US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
title_short US specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
title_sort us specificity of occasion setting: hierarchical or configural learning?
topic Rat
Occasion setting
Hierarchical
Configural learning
Summation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2667/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2667/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2667/