In two experiments with rat subjects, we examined the effects of a retention interval on performance in two conditioning paradigms in which a conditioned stimulus (CS) was associated with different unconditioned stimuli (USs) in successive phases of the experiment. Experiment 1 was designed to examine aversive-appetitive transfer, in which the CS is associated with shock and then food; Experiment 2 was designed to examine appetitive-aversive transfer, in which the CS is associated with food and then shock. Aversive and appetitive conditioned responses (freezing and head-jerk responding, respectively) were scored from videotape. In both experiments, a 28-day retention interval following the end of Phase 2 caused a recovery of the Phase 1 response and a resuppression of the Phase 2 response. The results suggest that the original association is not destroyed when the CS is associated with a new US in Phase 2. They also suggest that both retroactive and proactive interference effects may result from interference with performance output rather than a disruption or loss of what is learned during or stored from the target phase.The present article is concerned with two conditioning paradigms in which a conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with different unconditioned stimuli (USs) in successive phases of the experiment. In aversive-to-appetitive transfer, the CS is associated with an aversive US (e.g., shock) in an initial phase and then an appetitive US (e.g., food or water) in a second phase. In appetitive-to-aversive transfer, the CS is first paired with an appetitive US and then an aversive US. In either case, the CS comes to evoke responding appropriate to the second US by the end of the second phase (see, e.g., Bromage
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