Mediated configural learning in rats

Abstract

Three experiments investigated mediated configural learning in male rats. In Experiment 1, after exposure to audio-visual compounds AX and BY, rats received trials where X was paired with shock, and Y was not. The idea that conditioning with X enables the evoked configural representation of AX to be linked to shock received support from the facts that while AX provoked more fear than BX, there was no difference between BY and AY. Similarly, Experiment 2 showed that after exposure to AX and BY, separate pairings of X and Y with shock resulted in more fear to AX and BY than AY and BX. In Experiment 3, rats in group consistent received separate exposures to A and X in Context C, and B and Y in D, while those in group inconsistent received A and X (and B and Y) in both C and D. After rats had received shocks in both C and D, rats in group consistent showed more fear to AX and BY than to BX and AY, but this was not the case in group inconsistent. These results indicate that configural representations, formed either by presenting auditory and visual stimuli as parts of a compound or in a shared context, are subject to a process of mediated learning.

Familiarity-based stimulus generalization of conditioned suppression.

“…This could allow the associatively activated representation of each stimulus to enter into excitatory association with the other on complementary trials (cf. Holland, 1990;Ward-Robinson & Hall, 1996;see also, Dwyer et al, 1998;and for a different analysis, Lin, Dumigan, Recio, & Honey, 2016). Once it is allowed that C and T have become symmetrically associated in this way, both of the sensory preconditioning mechanisms discussed above are able to operate.…”

Excitotoxic lesions of the perirhinal cortex leave intact rats’ gustatory sensory preconditioning

“…Such findings concur with evidence from anatomy ( Burwell & Amaral, 1998 ) and from object recognition experiments in rodents (e.g., Albasser et al, 2009 ; Liu & Bilkey, 2001 ; Mumby & Pinel, 1994 ; Warburton et al, 2003 ; Winters et al, 2004 ). We noted that sensory preconditioning could be governed by an associative chain (A → X → +; for discussion, see, for example, Lin et al, 2017 ; Robinson et al, 2017 ) and/or by a form of stimulus generalisation, mediated by a unitary, undifferentiated representation of the AX compound stimulus (see, for example, Lin et al; Rescorla, 1981 ). We reasoned that Holmes et al’s use of serial compound, with no stimulus overlap, would favour the associative chain mechanism and that the simultaneous presentation would favour the AX-mediation mechanism.…”

“… Fernández & Tendolkar, 2006 ). Based on a series of analytical experiments, Rescorla (1981 ; see also, Lin et al, 2017 ) suggested that sensory preconditioning may also rely on A and X acting as a unitary representation, AX. During conditioning, X’s presentation elicits AX, through its perceptual similarity to X; and on test, stimulus A will, similarly, be mistaken for AX.…”

Criatividade, percepção e aprendizagem

“…Therefore, the early stages of the "crossing between cages" training was already counting with a transference of stimulus function to perform as a conditioned reinforcer. This way crows' emergent performance fits the mediated generalization just as Epstein's pigeons , but using a training that assumes a well-known conditioned transference of function between a reinforcer and its discriminative stimulus (Hull, 1943;Skinner, 1953;Lin, Dumigan, Recio, & Honey, 2017).…”

“…After two Pavlovian conditionings in humans, pairing a light (A) with an eye wink (B) and this eye wink (B) with a finger withdraw (C), a test revealed that the light (A) elicited the finger withdraw (C) by which was called an implicit learning (Shipley, 1935), or simply secondary generalization (Hull, 1943). Evidence of emergent categorial learning in non-humans are vast and it can be produced by both classical and instrumental conditioning (Lin, Dumigan, Recio & Honey, 2017;.…”