Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Learning and Cognition

Elemental models of associative learning typically employ a common prediction-error term. Following a conditioning trial, they predict that the change in the strength of an association between a cue and an outcome is dependent upon how well the outcome was predicted. When multiple cues are present, they each contribute to that prediction. The same rule applies both to increases in associative strength during excitatory conditioning and the loss of associative strength during extinction. In five experiments using an allergy prediction task, we tested the involvement of a common error term in the extinction of causal learning...

Neophobia and neophilia can be lifesaving as they can facilitate foraging while avoiding predation or intoxication. We investigated the extent to which Goffin's cockatoos ( Cacatua goffiniana ) exhibit ecollogically relevant and quantifiable neophobic responses toward specific object properties. Twelve cockatoos were presented with 12 novel objects grouped into four distinct categories with unique features: size, color, reflective capacity, and shape. The cockatoos were tested by measuring their latency to approach a high-quality food reward for both novel and control scenarios...

Two experiments observed an effect consistent with a latent-inhibition (LI) effect in humans that (a) did not depend on masking or instruction-generated expectations and (b) suggested that the effect results from a change in processing of the predictive cue. Participants viewed a video of a superhero character flying through three different contexts past a different stimulus in each context. In conditioning, The superhero flew past a target cue that was either Novel (Group No Exposure), had been preexposed in the Same context as where conditioning was occurring (Group Same), or was preexposed in a Different context (Group Different)...

Taste aversion learning has sometimes been considered a specialized form of learning. In several other conditioning preparations, after a conditioned stimulus (CS) is conditioned and extinguished, reexposure to the unconditioned stimulus (US) by itself can reinstate the extinguished conditioned response. Reinstatement has been widely studied in fear and appetitive Pavlovian conditioning, as well as operant conditioning, but its status in taste aversion learning is more controversial. Six taste-aversion experiments with rats therefore sought to discover conditions that might encourage it there...

According to the cycle/trial (C/T) rule, the rate of associative learning is a function of the ratio between the overall rate of U.S. presentation (C) and its rate in the presence of the conditioned stimulus (CS; [T]). This rule is well supported in studies with nonhumans. The present study was conducted to test whether it also applies to human contingency learning. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed to rapid streams of trials. Sensitivity to the cue-outcome contingency varied with both intertrial interval (ITI, which captures C) and cue duration, but the C/T rule was not respected, notably because the effect of ITI was much larger than the effect of cue duration...

Rescorla (2000, 2001) interpreted his compound test results to show that both common and individual error terms regulate associative change such that the element of a conditioned compound with the greater prediction error undergoes greater associative change than the one with the smaller prediction error. However, it has recently been suggested that uncertainty, not prediction error, is the primary determinant of associative change in people (Spicer et al., 2020, 2022). The current experiments use the compound test in a continuous outcome allergist task to assess the role of uncertainty in associative change, using two different manipulations of uncertainty: outcome uncertainty (where participants are uncertain of the level of the outcome on a particular trial) and causal uncertainty (where participants are uncertain of the contribution of the cue to the level of the outcome)...

Four experiments in human predictive learning evaluated whether the extinction makes the acquisition context specific (EMACS) effect is attenuated when the increase in prediction error that extinction produces disappears. Participants had to evaluate the relationship between a given food (cue) that was ingested by an imaginary client of a given restaurant (context) and a potential gastric illness (outcome). The task was implemented using Gorilla online software. All participants received the relevant training in context A, and equivalent exposure to context B...

A series of experiments employed a specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) task in rats to determine the capacity of various treatments to undermine two outcome-specific stimulus-outcome (S-O) associations. Experiment 1 tested a random treatment, which involved uncorrelated presentations of the two stimuli and their predicted outcomes. This treatment disrupted the capacity of the outcome-specific S-O associations to drive specific PIT. Experiment 2 used a negative-contingency treatment during which the predicted outcomes were exclusively delivered in the absence of their associated stimulus...

The partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) refers to the phenomenon that conditioned responding extinguishes more slowly if subjects had been inconsistently ("partially") reinforced than if they had been reinforced on every trial ("continuously" reinforced). One largely successful account of the PREE, known as sequential theory (Capaldi, 1966), suggests that, when subjects are partially reinforced, they learn that memories of sequences of nonreinforced trials are associated with subsequent reinforcement...

If a conditioned stimulus or response has been inconsistently ("partially") reinforced, conditioned responding will take longer to extinguish than if responding had been established by consistent ("continuous") reinforcement. This partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE) is one of the best-known phenomena in associative learning but defies ready explanation by associative models which assume that a partial reinforcement schedule will produce weaker conditioning that should be less resistant to extinction...

Three experiments examined the effect of instructions on human free-operant performance on random ratio (RR) and random interval (RI) schedules. Both rates of responding, and the microstructure of behavior, were explored to determine whether bout-initiation and within-bout responding may be controlled by different processes. The results demonstrated that responding in acquisition (Experiments 1 and 2) and extinction (Experiment 3) was impacted in line with given instructions. During acquisition, rates were higher on RR compared to RI for accurate and minimal instructions...

Previous experiments found that acceptance of saccharin by rats was reduced if they had prior experience of sucrose or some other highly palatable solution. This reduction in saccharin consumption was particularly extended after a switch from sucrose. On the surface, this seems to correspond to a successive negative contrast (SNC) effect. This term was coined by C. F. Flaherty to describe the situation where consumption of a target solution is reduced by prior experience of a more valuable solution, typically a more concentrated version of the target solution...

In a typical feature-positive discrimination, responding is reinforced (+) during the target stimulus (A) on trials with the feature stimulus (X), but not during target-alone trials (A-). When X and A are presented simultaneously, direct control by X is typically observed; however, when the stimuli are presented serially, X sets the occasion for responding to A. In the current dual-response procedures, one response (e.g., left lever press) was reinforced during feature-target trials (XA+) and a different response (e...

Research on approximate numerical estimation suggests that numerical representations can be influenced by nonnumerical magnitudes. Current theories of numerical cognition differ on the nature of this interaction. The present project evaluated the effect of task requirements on the stimulus control exerted by numerical and nonnumerical magnitudes on pigeons' numerical discrimination behavior. In a series of experiments, we explored the effects of cumulative area and item size on pigeons' numerical discrimination...

Telling that one object or moment is different from another one is fundamental to cognition and intelligent behavior. Most investigations examining same/different (S/D) concepts in animals have relied on testing static visual stimuli. To move beyond this limitation, we investigated how five pigeons learned and performed a motion S/D discrimination. Using a go/no-go task, dynamic motion fields built from dot elements were presented in sequence to display repeating (same) or changing (different) motions. Each trial consisted of 10 motion segments presented in succession using the direction and rate of dot movement in the motion field to exemplify the S/D relations...

Pavlovian conditioning has been proven to be useful for the study of associative learning and animal cognition. This procedure can be used to observe certain memory phenomena. The appetitive conditioning of several neutral stimuli can result in higher response rates, and therefore a better memory, for the first and last stimuli of the series. This is equivalent to primacy and recency effects. In this work, the tentacle lowering procedure was employed to study these phenomena in the snail ( Cornu aspersum )...

Three experiments with rats explored whether previously extinguished goal-directed and habitual responding recover with the same status using an ABA renewal preparation. In Experiments 1a and 1b, a lever-press response was minimally (four sessions) or extensively (16 sessions) trained in one context (Context A) and extinguished in another context (Context B). Then, outcome devaluation took place in either Context A or Context B in which a food pellet reinforcing the response was paired with lithium chloride (LiCl) for devalued groups and with saline for a control group...

In conditional discrimination, the conditional stimulus or sample indicates which of two choice or comparison stimuli is associated with a reinforcer. Two hypotheses have been proposed concerning the role of the sample stimulus. According to Hull (1952), the sample and the response to the correct comparison form a stimulus-response chain. According to Skinner (1938), however, the sample serves as an occasion setter, setting the occasion for the choice of the correct comparison stimulus. In a conditional discrimination, if the sample stimulus forms part of a stimulus-response chain, then presenting the sample in the absence of the comparison stimuli should weaken the association...

Reports an error in "Modulating perceptual learning indexed by the face inversion effect: Simulating the application of transcranial direct current stimulation using the MKM model" by Ciro Civile, Rossy McLaren, Charlotte Forrest, Anna Cooke and Ian P. L. McLaren ( Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition , 2023[Jul], Vol 49[3], 139-150). The article is being made available open access under the CC-BY license under the Jisc/ APA Read and Publish agreement. The correct copyright is "© 2023 The Author(s)" and the CC-BY license disclaimer is below...

Three experiments examined the impact of delayed outcomes on stimulus control of causal judgments using an interdimensional generalization procedure. Human participants rated the causal effectiveness of responses on multiple schedules, and then underwent a generalization test. In Experiment 1, a 3 s unsignaled outcome delay reduced ratings of causal effectiveness, relative to an immediate outcome, but had higher ratings compared to a component lacking outcomes. In a generalization test, incremental generalization gradients, indicating inhibitory control, were found for the stimulus associated with delayed outcomes when comparison was with immediate outcomes; but decremental gradients, indicating excitatory control, were found when the comparator lacked outcomes...