Associative Change in the Representations Acquired During Conditional Discriminations: Further Analysis of the Nature of Conditional Learning (original) (raw)
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Role of stimulus ambiguity in conditional learning
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1995
Three experiments using rats and the conditioned emotional response procedure examined the notion that when a conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with a reinforcer (US), that CS must be ambiguous if the CS-US association is to become the target of conditional control. CS ambiguity was manipulated by varying whether the CS had been preexposed prior to conditioning. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was demonstrated that a cue that accompanied pairings of a CS and shock acquired conditional control over the CS-shock association when that CS had been preexposed, but not when it was novel. The measure of conditional control in Experiments 1 and 2 was the ability of the (conditional) cue to enhance responding to the target CS. Experiment 3 used a blocking procedure to show that this enhancement reflected an amplification of the target CS's effective associative strength. These findings extend existing knowledge of the conditions required for conditional cue formation.
The study of associative learning: Mapping from psychological to neural levels of analysis
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2014
One of the major achievements of the last century of research in experimental psychology is the identification of a coherent set of theories and principles to characterize the nature of simple forms of associative learning. Major advances are also currently being made at a rapid pace in the neurobiology of associative learning, and, interestingly, we are beginning to see how a mapping from a psychological level of analysis to underlying neurobiological mechanisms is possible. This collection of papers honors the illustrative careers of four major learning theorists from the experimental psychology tradition (Robert Rescorla, Allan Wagner, Nicholas Mackintosh, Anthony Dickinson) who have helped shape our understanding of behavioral principles. The collection of works in this special issue reflects common interests among researchers working at both psychological and neurobiological levels of analysis towards a more comprehensive understanding of basic associative learning processes as they relate to several key issues identified and intensively studied by these influential learning theorists. These consist of the questions regarding (1) the critical conditions enabling learning, (2) the contents of learning, and (3) the rules that translate learning into performance. In one way or another, the separate contributions in this issue address these fundamental questions as they relate to a wide variety of currently exciting topics in the study of the neurobiology of learning and memory. The study of basic learning processes has a rich and venerable history. Early philosophers, Russian physiologists, and Darwin's evolutionary theory provided the backdrop from which modern day learning theory emerged (e.g., see Boakes, 1984). Several key issues included (a) the importance of experience in shaping learning and behavior (i.e., nature vs nurture), (b) understanding what constituted an explanatory mechanism (e.g., reflex arc conceptions vs functionalist accounts), and (c) delineating how complex behavioral systems evolved. When Pavlov (1927) and Thorndike (1898) first made public their systematic methods for studying the development of conditioned behaviors, the community was extremely excited by the prospects. These two paradigms-what have now become known as classic examples of simple forms of associative learning-allowed the scientist to measure fairly directly the
Biological Psychology, 2001
Two Pavlovian SCR conditioning experiments investigated positive and negative patterning discriminations in humans by means of transfer tests. In Experiment 1, positive patterning (A −, B− , AB+ ) was trained interleaved with non-reinforced presentations of an additional stimulus (C −). Then responding to new compounds consisting of either already trained elements (AC, BC) or new elements (DE) was examined. In Experiment 2, negative patterning (A +, B+ , AB− ) was trained interleaved with reinforced presentations of an additional stimulus (C +). Again, we examined responding to new compounds consisting of either already trained elements (AC, BC) or new elements (DE). In both experiments the initial patterning discrimination was solved successfully. The response patterns to the test compounds in both experiments were in contradiction to configural accounts of associative learning. In positive patterning human participants seemed to utilize 'number' or some other abstract feature in preference to available concrete stimuli. In negative patterning the abstract dimension of 'separate-versus-together' or 'opposite' was used.
A model of pavlovian conditioning: Variations in representations of the unconditional stimulus
Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 1995
We present a model of Pavlovian excitatory conditioning in which associative strength and malleable central representations of unconditional stimuli determine the strength of conditional responding. Presentation of a conditioned stimulus acts through an experientially determined associative bond to activate a representation of the unconditional stimulus. The activation of the representation produces a conditioned response. A striking feature of the model is its ability to describe changes in conditioned response magnitude in terms of alterations of representations of the unconditional stimulus. Another is its acknowledgement of the capacity of associative bonds to survive behavioral extinction. The model describes much of the data reported from excitatory conditioning experiments and predicts counterintuitive phenomena.
PLoS ONE, 2013
In four human learning experiments (Pavlovian skin conductance, causal learning, speeded classification task), we evaluated several associative learning theories that assume either an elemental (modified unique cue model and Harris' model) or a configural (Pearce's configural theory and an extension of it) form of stimulus processing. The experiments used two modified patterning problems (A/B/C+, AB/BC/AC+ vs. ABC-; A+, BC+ vs. ABC-). Pearce's configural theory successfully predicted all of our data reflecting early stimulus processing, while the predictions of the elemental theories were in accord with all of our data reflecting later stages of stimulus processing. Our results suggest that the form of stimulus representation depends on the amount of time available for stimulus processing. Our findings highlight the necessity to investigate stimulus processing during conditioning on a finer time scale than usually done in contemporary research.
Associative structure of conditioned inhibition produced by inhibitory perceptual learning treatment
Learning & Behavior
Exposure to a set of complex stimuli yields an enhanced ability to discriminate between these stimuli. In previous experimental studies, two distinguishable stimuli, X and A, were each repeatedly paired with a common Stimulus B to create compound Stimuli XB and AB. Prior evidence suggests that unique Features X and A form mutually inhibitory associations. This was evidenced by pairing Feature A with a biologically relevant stimulus (i.e., an unconditioned stimulus [US]) and observing that Stimulus X alone later serves to inhibit anticipatory behaviors for that US. These observations may reflect the mutually inhibitory nature of the two Features X and A. However, by assessing the influence of X on behavior that anticipates the US rather than Feature A, these experiments tested inhibition only indirectly. In the present experiments, a more direct measure of inhibition is proposed and tested with rats. We found evidence of retardation and negative summation of associations between unique Features X and A in their capacity to serve as competing cues during overshadowing treatments. Stimulus X was less susceptible to overshadowing by A (which is indicative of retardation of the establishment of an X-A within-compound association) and was able to suppress overshadowing by A of another stimulus (Y) when X was presented with Yat test (which is indicative of negative summation of the representation of A by X). Thus, XB/AB trials were seen to establish an inhibitory relationship between X and A.
Associative Change in Connectionist Networks: An Addendum
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 2005
The results of a recent study have provided direct support for the suggestion that conditional learning in rats is best characterized by a 3-layer connectionist network (M. J. Allman, J. Ward-Robinson, & R. C. Honey, 2004). In the 2 experiments reported here, rats were used to investigate the nature of the changes that occur when a stimulus compound is presented, whose components activate hidden units associated with food and no food, and either food or no food is presented. The results of both experiments, while controlling for the possible contribution of associations between these hidden units (within-layer links), provide evidence that the distribution of associative change between units in the hidden layer that are activated by the stimulus compound and those in the output layer (between-layer links) are unequal. They also indicate that associative change is more marked on trials on which no food was presented than on trials on which food was presented.
A Stimulus-Location Effect in Contingency-Governed, but Not Rule-Based, Discrimination Learning
Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition, 2016
We tested pigeons' acquisition of a conditional discrimination task between colored grating stimuli that included choosing 1 of 2 response keys, which either appeared as white keys to the left and right of the discriminative stimulus, or were replicas of the stimulus. Pigeons failed to acquire the discrimination when the response keys were white disks but succeeded when directly responding to a replica of the stimulus. These results highlight how conditioning processes shape learning in pigeons: The results can be accounted for by supposing that, when pigeons were allowed to respond directly toward the stimulus, learning was guided by classical conditioning, but that responding to white keys demanded instrumental learning, which impaired task acquisition for pigeons. In contrast, humans completing the same paradigm showed no differential learning success depending on whether figure or position indicated the correct key. However, only participants who could state the underlying d...
Stimulus Generalization in Two Associative Learning Processes
Journal of Experimental Psychology-learning Memory and Cognition, 2004
Recent studies involving nonlinear discrimination problems suggest that stimuli in human associative learning are represented configurally with narrow generalization, such that presentation of stimuli that are even slightly dissimilar to stored configurations weakly activate these configurations. The authors note that another well-known set of findings in human associative learning, cue-interaction phenomena, suggest relatively broad generalization. Three experiments show that current models of human associative learning, which try to model both nonlinear discrimination and cue interaction as the result of 1 process, fail because they cannot simultaneously account for narrow and broad generalization. Results suggest that human associative learning involves (a) an exemplar-based process with configural stimulus representation and narrow generalization and (b) an adaptive learning process characterized by broad generalization and cue interaction.