Goalbox Placements with Initial Nonreward and Situational Similarity in Resistance to Extinction

Franchina, Joseph J.; Weeks, James R.; Pais, Nanette

doi:10.2307/1422051

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…That is, preceding runway acquisition training with a series of nonrewarded placements in the runway retards subsequent extinction (Brooks, 1980;Capaldi & Haggbloom, 1974;Spear, Hill, & O'Sullivan, 1965;Spear & Spitzner, 1967). In a particularly relevant study, Franchina and his colleagues demonstrated that the initial nonreward effect was not affected by differences between the apparatus used in the nonreward phase and that used in the acquisition and extinction phases under conditions in which the nonrewarded preexposure consisted of the animals being placed in the goalbox (Franchina, Weeks, & Pais, 1977). The results of the present experiment suggest a similar outcome.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 64%

Effect of taste context and ambient context changes on successive negative contrast

Flaherty

Hrabinski

Grigson

1990

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Rats shifted from 32% sucrose to 4% sucrose lick less than rats that experience only the 4% solution. Previous experiments have found this negative contrast effect to be reduced ("disinhibited") by the addition of a novel tone in the postshift period. In Experiment 1 of this paper, the negative contrast effect was enhanced when a novel flavor was added to the sucrose solution in the postshift period. In Experiments 2-4, changes in the ambient context, even changes sufficient to produce disruptions in licking, did not alter the degree of negative contrast. These results suggest that (1) rats compare rewards across substantially different contexts, (2) contrast may serve to enhance taste neophobia, and (3) a disinhibitory effect may be confined to the presentation of punctate, nontaste, novel stimuli within a familiar context. Rats shifted from a 32 % to 4 % sucrose solution consume less of the 4% solution than do animals that experience only the latter solution. Such "negative contrast" effects are pervasive in consummatory behavior, but the extent to which negative contrast is confined to the context in which different rewards are received has been little investigated. One study, which was concerned with the role of inhibition in contrast, showed that the introduction of a novel stimulus (a loud tone) concomitant with the shift led to a reduced contrast effect, but only on the second and subsequent postshift days (Lombardi & Flaherty, 1978).Other studies, using different contrast procedures in which animals regularly experienced two different reinforcers, showed that changes in the environment in which the animals received the reinforcers had relatively little effect on contrast (Flaherty & Avdzej, 1976;Premack, 1969). Similarly, recent studies in traditional learning paradigms have indicated that changes in conditioning context have relatively little influence on responding to a previously reinforced signal, although responding to a nonreinforced signal may be substantially impaired by context shifts (Bouton, 1986, in press;Kaye, Preston, Szabo, Druiff, & Mackintosh, 1987;Lovibond, Preston, & Mackintosh, 1984).The consummatory contrastprocedure is different from these traditional conditioning studies in that there is no explicit signal for the sucrose solutions other than the context itself. Since the animals presumably must compare the postshift reward with the memory of the preshift reward in order to show a contrast effect (e.g., see Flaherty & Lombardi, 1977;Gonzalez, Fernhoff, & David, 1973; This research was supported by NIMH Grant MH-40489 and by a Charles and Johanna Busch Memorial grant. Comments made by the reviewers substantially enhanced the paper. Correspondence may be addressed to Charles Flaherty, Psychology Department, Busch Campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Spear, 1967), the degree to which this memory must be associated with the preshift context is of some interest. The literature mentioned above suggests that rewards are compared across substantially different contexts w...

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