Contrasting AAC and ABC renewal: the role of context associations

Abstract

Rats were used in a lick suppression preparation to assess the contribution of conditioned-stimulus (CS)-context and context-unconditioned-stimulus (US) associations to experimental extinction. Experiment 1 investigated whether strengthening the CS-acquisition context association enhances extinction by determining whether stronger extinction is observed when CS-alone trials (i.e., extinction treatment) are administered in the acquisition context (AAC renewal), relative to a context that is neutral with respect to the US (ABC renewal). Less recovery of responding to the CS was observed in the former than in the latter case, extending the finding that AAC renewal is weaker than ABC renewal to our lick suppression preparation. Experiment 2 assessed the contribution of the acquisition context-US association to extinction of a CS by examining the effect of postextinction exposure to the acquisition context on responding to the extinguished CS. This manipulation enhanced responding to the extinguished CS in AAC, but not ABC, renewal. Experiment 3 addressed the contribution of the CS-acquisition context association by examining the potential of a neutral stimulus, presented in compound with the target CS during extinction treatment, to overshadow the CS-acquisition context association. This manipulation enhanced responding to the extinguished CS in AAC, but not ABC, renewal. The results stress the important role of contextual association in extinction and renewal.

Performance factors in associative learning: Assessment of the sometimes competing retrieval model

“…In other simulations, SOCR provided a better fit to these differences by allowing for smaller values of k1 (the extinction rate parameter), which is consistent with the view that renewal suggests that extinction involves more than unlearning. These data, in conjunction with several recent experiments (e.g., Laborda, Witnauer, & Miller, 2011;Witnauer & Miller, in press), support the explanation of extinction provided by SOCR, with one important qualification. In its current form, SOCR does not have a mechanism to explain how changes in time and emotion can influence the context.…”

The dual role of the context in postpeak performance decrements resulting from extended training

“…That is, in the absence of the training context, the b process (or activation of the CS into A2, according to SOP) should not have been anticipatory to CS onset. Of note, we used highly distinct contexts that extensive prior research in our laboratory has demonstrated are well discriminated by rats (e.g., Laborda, Witnauer, & Miller, 2011;Schachtman et al, 1987). OPT and SOP predict the PPD effect only if testing is conducted in the same context where training was conducted, a prediction that received support in Experiment 2, but only when the spacing of trials during training was large.…”

Spontaneous recovery and ABC renewal from retroactive cue interference

“…ABC renewal is the expression of the phase 1 association when phase 1 training, phase 2 training, and testing all take place in different contexts (e.g., Bouton & Bolles, 1979). AAC renewal, the weakest of the three renewal effects (e.g., Laborda, Witnauer, & Miller, 2011), is the expression of the phase 1 association after phase 1 and phase 2 take place in the same context and testing occurs in a different context (e.g., Bouton & Ricker, 1994). Renewal after retroactive outcome interference is typically reported when the first outcome enters into an excitatory association (e.g., Bouton & Bolles, 1979;Bouton & King, 1983;Bouton & Ricker, 1994).…”