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Journal ArticleDOI

Probability of shock in the presence and absence of CS in fear conditioning.

01 Aug 1968-Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology (J Comp Physiol Psychol)-Vol. 66, Iss: 1, pp 1-5
TL;DR: 2 experiments indicate that CS-US contingency is an important determinant of fear conditioning and that presentation of US in the absence of CS interferes with fear conditioning.
Abstract: 2 experiments indicate that CS-US contingency is an important determinant of fear conditioning and that presentation of US in the absence of CS interferes with fear conditioning. In Experiment 1, equal probability of a shock US in the presence and absence of a tone CS produced no CER suppression to CS; the same probability of US given only during CS produced substantial conditioning. In Experiment 2, which explored 4 different probabilities of US in the presence and absence of CS, amount of conditioning was higher the greater the probability of US during CS and was lower the greater the probability of US in the absence of CS; when the 2 probabilities were equal, no conditioning resulted. Two conceptions of Pavlovian conditioning have been distinguished by Rescorla (1967). The first, and more traditional, notion emphasizes the role of the number of pairings of CS and US in the formation of a CR. The second notion suggests that it is the contingency between CS and US which is important. The notion of contingency differs from that of pairing in that it includes not only what events are paired but also what events are not paired. As used here, contingency refers to the relative probability of occurrence of US in the presence of CS as contrasted with its probability in the absence of CS. The contingency notion suggests that, in fact, conditioning only occurs when these probabilities differ; when the probability of US is higher during CS than at other times, excitatory conditioning occurs; when the probability is lower, inhibitory conditioning results. Notice that the probability of a US can be the same in the absence and presence of CS and yet there can be a fair number of CS-US pairings. It is this that makes it possible to assess the relative importance of pairing and contingency in the development of a CR. Several experiments have pointed to the usefulness of the contingency notion. Rescorla (1966) reported a Pavlovian 1This research was supported by Grants MH13415-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health and GB-6493 from the National Science Foundation, as well as by funds from Yale University.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that psychologists interested in human causal judgment should understand and adopt a representation of causal mechanisms by directed graphs that encode conditional independence (screening off) relations.
Abstract: I argue that psychologists interested in human causal judgment should understand and adopt a representation of causal mechanisms by directed graphs that encode conditional independence (screening off) relations. I illustrate the benefits of that representation, now widely used in computer science and increasingly in statistics, by (i) showing that a dispute in psychology between ’mechanist‘ and ’associationist‘ psychological theories of causation rests on a false and confused dichotomy; (ii) showing that a recent, much-cited experiment, purporting to show that human subjects, incorrectly let large causes ’overshadow‘ small causes, misrepresents the most likely, and warranted, causal explanation available to the subjects, in the light of which their responses were normative; (iii) showing how a recent psychological theory (due to P. Cheng) of human judgment of causal power can be considerably generalized: and (iv) suggesting a range of possible experiments comparing human and computer abilities to extract causal information from associations.

73 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that, in these two widely used conditioning preparations, immediate extinction does not erase or depotentiate the original learning, and instead creates a less permanent reduction in conditioned responding.
Abstract: Five experiments with rat subjects compared the effects of immediate and delayed extinction on the durability of extinction learning. Three experiments examined extinction of fear conditioning (using the conditioned emotional response method), and two experiments examined extinction of appetitive conditioning (using the food-cup entry method). In all experiments, conditioning and extinction were accomplished in single sessions, and retention testing took place 24 h after extinction. In both fear and appetitive conditioning, immediate extinction (beginning 10 min after conditioning) caused a faster loss of responding than delayed extinction (beginning 24 h after conditioning). However, immediate extinction was less durable than delayed extinction: There was stronger spontaneous recovery during the final retention test. There was also substantial renewal of responding when the physical context was changed between immediate extinction and testing (Experiment 1). The results suggest that, in these two widely used conditioning preparations, immediate extinction does not erase or depotentiate the original learning, and instead creates a less permanent reduction in conditioned responding. Results did not support the possibility that the strong recovery after immediate extinction was due to a mismatch in the recent “context” provided by the presence or absence of a recent conditioning experience. Several other accounts are considered.

73 citations


Cites methods from "Probability of shock in the presenc..."

  • ...This method has a long history in the study of fear conditioning (e.g., Annau and Kamin 1961; Rescorla 1968; Kamin 1969; Randich and Rescorla 1981; Bouton and King 1983)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A motivational model of sign-tracking behaviour is presented whose aim is to explain a wide range of behavioural effects, including those related to partial reinforcement, physiological changes, competition between CSs, and individual differences in responding to a CS.

73 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A set of criteria for determining that responses to drug-related stimuli in humans are learned is outlined and existing studies are reviewed in light of these criteria and paradigms for further work are suggested.
Abstract: There has been much recent interest in the possibility that signals for drug use in humans acquire the ability to evoke classically conditioned (learned) states which motivate drug taking Much data now suggest that cues paired with drug use come to elicit physiological responses and subjective reports of drug-related feelings like craving and withdrawal However, the designs employed do not permit the conclusion that the observed responding results from classical conditioning Studies which look directly at conditioning in the laboratory by pairing neutral stimuli with drug administration have not provided appropriate controls for unlearned effects such as sensitization or pseudo-conditioning Similarly, studies which assess responding to cues thought to signal drug use in the natural environment (eg, the sight of someone injecting heroin) have not adequately assessed whether such cues have unconditioned (unlearned) effects Determining whether responding to drug-related cues results from classical conditioning has important implications for the development of drug treatments Consequently, the purpose of the present review is to outline a set of criteria for determining that responses to drug-related stimuli in humans are learned Existing studies are reviewed in light of these criteria and paradigms for further work are suggested

72 citations


Cites background from "Probability of shock in the presenc..."

  • ...In other words, the time of occurrence of the US is determined without reference to the time of occurrence of the CS (e.g., Rescorla 1966, 1968)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest that discriminative stimuli have relatively specific associations with the response-outcome relations that obtain in their presence.
Abstract: In 4 experiments, rats received 1 of several outcomes for engaging in various instrumental responses in the presence of discriminative stimuli. Discriminative stimuli shared some response-outcome relations but not others. When a response was subsequently extinguished in the presence of 1 discriminative stimulus, that produced relatively more decrement in responding in other stimuli that shared the same response-outcome relation. Other discriminative stimuli, in the presence of which that response had been reinforced by other outcomes and in which the original outcome had reinforced another response, were less affected. Moreover, postextinction devaluation of that outcome suggested that the particular response-outcome relation extinguished had undergone decrement. These results suggest that discriminative stimuli have relatively specific associations with the response-outcome relations that obtain in their presence.

72 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This "truly random" control procedure leads to a new conception of Pavlovian conditioning postulating that the contingency between CS and US, rather than the pairing of CS andUS, is the important event in conditioning.
Abstract: The traditional control procedures for Pavlovian conditioning are examined and each is found wanting. Some procedures introduce nonassociative factors not present in the experimental procedure while others transform the excitatory, experimental CS-US contingency into an inhibitory contingency. An alternative control procedure is suggested in which there is no contingency whatsoever between CS and US. This \"truly random\" control procedure leads to a new conception of Pavlovian conditioning postulating that the contingency between CS and US, rather than the pairing of CS and US, is the important event in conditioning. The fruitfulness of this new conception of Pavlovian conditioning is illustrated by 2 experimental results.

1,328 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, three groups of dogs were trained with different kinds of Pavlovian fear conditioning for three different types of dogs: randomly and independently; for a second group, CSs predicted the occurrence of USs; and for a third group, S predicted the absence of the USs.
Abstract: Three groups of dogs were Sidman avoidance trained They then received different kinds of Pavlovian fear conditioning For one group CSs and USs occurred randomly and independently; for a second group, CSs predicted the occurrence of USs; for a third group, CSs predicted the absence of the USs The CSs were subsequently presented while S performed the avoidance response CSs which had predicted the occurrence or the absence of USs produced, respectively, increases and decreases in avoidance rate For the group with random CSs and USs in conditioning, the CS had no effect upon avoidance

160 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Rats in an experimental group were given 30 trials of differential CER and then the CS+ and CS− were combined during CER extinction, resulting in less suppression for the experimental group than shown by a control group, interpreted as a demonstration of the active inhibitory properties of CS−.
Abstract: Rats in an experimental group were given 30 trials of differential CER and then the CS+ and CS− were combined during CER extinction. The combination resulted in less suppression for the experimental group than shown by a control group which had a CS+ and a formerly random stimulus combined during extinction. This was interpreted as a demonstration of the active inhibitory properties of CS−.

44 citations


"Probability of shock in the presenc..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Although such an account is plausible for the present data, it fails to explain the active inhibition of fear found by Rescorla and LoLordo (1965), Rescorla (1966), and Hammond (1967)....

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