Contextual Control of Appetitive Conditioning: Influence of a Contextual Stimulus Generated by a Partial Reinforcement Procedure

Abstract

Three experiments with rat subjects examined the effects of a context switch after conditioning treatments in which the conditioned stimulus (CS) was either paired with food on every presentation (continuous reinforcement) or on some of its presentations (partial reinforcement). In each experiment, a target CS was given one of these treatments in Context A, and another CS was given a treatment during sessions that were intermixed in Context B. Final tests of the target CS in Context A and Context B often revealed no loss of responding with the switch to B. However, a loss was observed when partial reinforcement had been associated with Context A and continuous reinforcement had been associated with Context B. Those conditions caused equal decrements in responding to partially reinforced and continuously reinforced targets. The results suggest that under the present conditions partial reinforcement can generate a contextual stimulus that becomes associated with the physical context and controls responding to the CS.

Occasion setting, inhibition, and the contextual control of extinction in Pavlovian and instrumental (operant) learning

“…A number of recent experiments have demonstrated that the operant response is reliably weakened when it is tested in a new context (e.g., Bouton et al, 2011; Bouton, Todd, & Léon, 2014; Todd, 2013). Control of operant responding by the acquisition context contrasts with many failures in our hands to observe effects of changing the context after appetitive and aversive Pavlovian learning (e.g., Bouton, Frohardt, Sunsay, Waddell, & Morris, 2008; Bouton & King, 1983; Bouton & Peck, 1989; Bouton & Sunsay, 2001; Bouton & Swartzentruber, 1986; Brooks & Bouton, 1993; Swartzentruber & Bouton, 1986). The relative lack of a context switch effect on Pavlovian acquisition learning appears general across laboratories (Bevins & Ayres, 1992; Grahame, Hallam, Geier, & Miller, 1990; Harris, Jones, Bailey, & Westbrook, 2000; Kaye & Mackintosh, 1990; Leaton, 1974; Lovibond, Preston, & Mackintosh, 1984; Neumann, 2006; Thomas, et al, 2003).…”

Multimodal Learning of Pheromone Locations

“…Once the animals reached a criterion performance of >80% for an odor pair for which long-term memory needs to be checked, we performed resistance to memory extinction. This was done to stabilize the memory of an odor pair and is based on the 'Partial reinforcement theory' (Bouton and Sunsay, 2001). The task comprised of 100 trials with 50 trials for S+ and S-each.…”

El papel modulador de las instrucciones sobre el efecto de cambio de contexto después de la adquisición simple en aprendizaje predictivo humano.

“…Abad, Ramos-Álvarez y Rosas (2009) en una tarea de aprendizaje predictivo humano utilizaron un procedimiento de reforzamiento parcial en el que una clave fue seguida de la consecuencia en la mitad de las ocasiones en las que se presentó. Este tipo de entrenamiento podría generar en los participantes un estado interno "N" relacionado con la frustración (Amsel, 1992) o con la huella en la memoria de los ensayos que no van seguidos de la consecuencia (Bouton y Sunsay, 2001;Capaldi, 1967;Pearce, Redhead y Aydin, 1997), que se sumaría al contexto en el que aparece haciéndolo más saliente. En esta línea argumental, Abad et al (2009) encontraron un efecto de cambio de contexto sobre una clave entrenada de manera consistente (X) cuando otra clave (P) recibió entrenamiento parcial en el mismo contexto.…”