Extinction context as a conditioned inhibitor

Polack, Cody W.; Laborda, Mario A.; Miller, Ralph R.

doi:10.3758/s13420-011-0039-1

Cited by 57 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…By the same token, the context should summate with a separately trained cue, thereby depressing the conditioned response. In fact, both of these predictions are false (Bouton & Swartzentruber, 1986): the extinction context does not appear to acquire inhibitory associative strength (but see Polack, Laborda, & Miller, 2012).…”

Section: Renewalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context-dependent learning and causal structure

Gershman

2016

Psychon Bull Rev

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The notion of "context" has played an important but complicated role in animal learning theory. Some studies have found that contextual stimuli (e.g., conditioning chamber) act much like punctate stimuli, entering into competition with other cues as would be predicted by standard associative learning theories. Other studies have found that contextual stimuli act more like "occasion setters," modulating the associative strength of punctate stimuli without themselves acquiring associative strength. Yet other studies have found that context is often largely ignored, resulting in transfer of performance across context changes. This article argues that these diverse functions of context arise in part from different causal interpretations of the environment. A Bayesian theory is presented that infers which causal interpretation best explains an animal's training history, and hence which function of context is appropriate. The theory coherently accounts for a number of disparate experimental results, and quantitatively predicts the results of a new experiment designed to directly test the theory.

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Section: Renewalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context-dependent learning and causal structure

Gershman

2016

Psychon Bull Rev

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“…Evidence that the extinction context develops associative inhibition is conflicting, but recent findings suggest that this can occur under certain circumstances (Polack et al 2012). Importantly, most studies on DCS and fear extinction use a novel context for extinction training and then test animals in that same context (i.e., an ABB design).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

d-cycloserine does not facilitate fear extinction by reducing conditioned stimulus processing or promoting conditioned inhibition to contextual cues

2012

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The NMDA receptor partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) enhances the extinction of learned fear in rats and exposure therapy in humans with anxiety disorders. Despite these benefits, little is known about the mechanisms by which DCS promotes the loss of fear. The present study examined whether DCS augments extinction retention (1) through reductions in conditioned stimulus (CS) processing or (2) by promoting the development of conditioned inhibition to contextual cues. Rats administered DCS prior to extinction showed enhanced long-term extinction retention (Experiments 3 and 4). The same nonreinforced CS procedure used in extinction also reduced freezing at test when presented as pre-exposure before conditioning, demonstrating latent inhibition (Experiment 1). DCS administered shortly prior to pre-exposure had no effect on latent inhibition using parameters which produced weak (Experiment 2) or strong (Experiment 3) expression of latent inhibition. Therefore, DCS facilitated learning involving CS-alone exposures, but only when these exposures occurred after (extinction) and not before (latent inhibition) conditioning. We also used a retardation test procedure to examine whether the extinction context gained inhibitory properties for rats given DCS prior to extinction. With three different footshock intensities, there was no evidence that DCS promoted accrual of associative inhibition to the extinction context (Experiment 4). The present findings demonstrate that DCS does not facilitate extinction by reducing CS processing or causing the extinction context to become a conditioned inhibitor. Investigations into the mechanisms underlying the augmentation of extinction by DCS are valuable for understanding how fear can be inhibited.

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“…Figure 9 summarizes the results of Zimmer-Hart and Rescorla's (1974) experiment that failed to detect evidence of extinction of conditioned inhibition (cf. Polack et al, 2011). Subjects first received A − US/AX − inhibition training, which presumably made X inhibitory.…”

Section: Simulation 3c: Extinction Of Conditioned Inhibitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The purpose of the present simulations was to apply SOCR to a broader range of phenomena than in previously reported simulations. Moreover, following Polack, Laborda, and Miller (2011), here we modified SOCR to explain interactions among cues that are simultaneously present at test. An important limitation of SOCR's implementation in Stout and Miller's (2007) simulations was that it did not specify how cues interact when they are tested simultaneously (i.e., they applied the model only to situations in which the target cue was tested in isolation of cues and contexts that shared associations with the target CS or the US).…”

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confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2012

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Previous simulations revealed that the sometimes competing retrieval model (SOCR; Stout & Miller, Psychological Review, 114, 759-783, 2007), which assumes local error reduction, can explain many cue interaction phenomena that elude traditional associative theories based on total error reduction. Here, we applied SOCR to a new set of Pavlovian phenomena. Simulations used a single set of fixed parameters to simulate each basic effect (e.g., blocking) and, for specific experiments using different procedures, used fitted parameters discovered through hill climbing. In simulation 1, SOCR was successfully applied to basic acquisition, including the overtraining effect, which is context dependent. In simulation 2, we applied SOCR to basic extinction and renewal. SOCR anticipated these effects with both fixed parameters and bestfitting parameters, although the renewal effects were weaker than those observed in some experiments. In simulation 3a, feature-negative training was simulated, including the often observed transition from second-order conditioning to conditioned inhibition. In simulation 3b, SOCR predicted the observation that conditioned inhibition after featurenegative and differential conditioning depends on intertrial interval. In simulation 3c, SOCR successfully predicted failure of conditioned inhibition to extinguish with presentations of the inhibitor alone under most circumstances. In simulation 4, cue competition, including blocking (4a), recovery from relative validity (4b), and unblocking (4c), was simulated. In simulation 5, SOCR correctly predicted that inhibitors gain more behavioral control than do excitors when they are trained in compound. Simulation 6 demonstrated that SOCR explains the slower acquisition observed following CS-weak shock pairings.

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Extinction context as a conditioned inhibitor

Cited by 57 publications

References 23 publications

Context-dependent learning and causal structure

Context-dependent learning and causal structure

d-cycloserine does not facilitate fear extinction by reducing conditioned stimulus processing or promoting conditioned inhibition to contextual cues

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

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