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Are associative changes in acquisition and extinction negatively accelerated?
1Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. rescorla@cattell.psych.upenn.edu
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes
|October 26, 2001
Summary
Pavlovian conditioning performance changes are typically negatively accelerated. This study used stimulus compounds to compare associative learning changes at common performance levels in rats and pigeons.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral neuroscience
- Animal learning
Background:
- Pavlovian conditioning and extinction performance often exhibit negatively accelerated changes.
- Inferring underlying associative learning from performance is challenging due to undefined learning-to-performance mappings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the form of associative changes during acquisition and extinction.
- To overcome limitations in inferring associative learning from performance data by comparing stimuli at common performance levels.
Main Methods:
- Utilized stimulus compounds (one poorly, one well-conditioned) in rats (magazine-approach) and pigeons (autoshaping).
- Administered additional training to either the poorly or well-conditioned stimulus within the compound.
- Compared responding at equivalent performance levels to infer associative changes.
Main Results:
- The study provides a method to assess associative changes across different performance levels.
- Findings contribute to understanding the dynamics of associative learning in Pavlovian conditioning.
Conclusions:
- The technique allows for a more precise examination of associative learning curves.
- Results inform theories on how learning is represented and expressed in behavior.