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Enhancement of responding to A after A+/AX+ training: challenges for a comparator theory of learning
Guillem R Esber1, John M Pearce, Mark Haselgrove
1School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
Abstract:
Two appetitive Pavlovian conditioning experiments with rats investigated the associative changes that A undergoes in an A+/AX+ blocking procedure. Conditioned responding to A was enhanced relative to stimulus B, which had been conditioned in isolation (B+). This result was interpreted in terms of the formation of a within-compound association between A and X. The results of Experiment 2 supported this conclusion by demonstrating that X had associative strength of its own and, furthermore, that extinguishing X resulted in a similar level of responding to A and B. These results are considered in terms of retrospective revaluation theories of learning.
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