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Updated: Jul 6, 2026
Whisker-signaled Eyeblink Classical Conditioning in Head-fixed Mice
Published on: March 30, 2016
Magnitude and timing of nictitating membrane movements during classical conditioning of the rabbit (Oryctolagus
E James Kehoe1, Elliot A Ludvig, Joanne E Dudeney
1School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. j.kehoe@unsw.edu.au
Abstract:
A trial-by-trial, subject-by-subject analysis was conducted to determine whether generation of the conditioned response (CR) occurs on a continuous or all-or-none basis. Three groups of rabbits were trained on different partial reinforcement schedules with the conditioned stimulus presented alone on 10%, 30%, or 50%, respectively, of all trials. Plots of each rabbit's nictitating membrane movements revealed that their magnitude rose in a continuous fashion. Response growth during acquisition followed a sigmoidal curve, and the timing of CR-sized movements was largely stable throughout the experiment. The results are discussed with respect to alternative models of CR generation.
