Superconsolidated conditioned reflex—A highly adaptive system of behavior

Abstract

Superconsolidated (2500–3000 combinations), long-trained (two to three years), specialized (per I. P. Pavlov), instrumental alimentary conditioned reflexes were investigated in cats. It was demonstrated that such conditioned reflexes are unusually rapidly extinguished, despite the classical notion of extinction, according to which the more consolidated the conditioned reflex the more difficult it is and the longer it takes to extinguish it. Thus, in the very first experiment, stable extinction of the conditioned reflex commenced after two to seven (in different animals) presentations of the conditional stimulus without reinforcement, and 15–20 “zeros” in a row in relation to the conditioned reaction could be obtained. The rate of extinction essentially did not depend on the individual features of the animals or the level of alimentary motivation. The data obtained make it possible to set such reflexes apart in a special new category of conditioned reflexes, which apparently have a different neurophysiological and structural control base than the “younger” conditioned reflexes commonly studied in the laboratory.