Abstract
This experiment extends Pavlov’s method of contrasts for training a stimulus discrimination to the case of the cardiac conditional response in the rhesus monkey. It explores the parameter of temporal placement of an additional stimulus (“CS2”) within a 10-sec CS (or “CS1”), with the appearance of the former stimulus on any trial signalling the absence of UCS (electric shock) on that trial. This experimental paradigm is a parallel to that of the “intruded stimulus” studies in operant conditioning. In both cases, several ways of describing the function of the added stimulus are possible, but all seem reducible to the same operational terms. Data were taken in the present study with respect to the form and latency of the cardiac rate changes produced by intrusion of CS2 (light), across a range of placements varying from simultaneity with CS1 (a different light) onset to two sec before UCS would have been delivered. The control of CS2 over the cardiac rate CR was occasionally exhibited with a latency as short as three beats after stimulus onset. The order of CS2 temporal placements to which a subject was exposed was a factor in determining the form of the conditioned cardiac rate response to CS1.
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Portions of this study were reported at the 81st Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, 1973. The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under Grant MH-13049, and by the Veterans Administration Hospital, Montrose, New York. Reprints may be obtained from: Psychology Research Laboratory, Building 7, Room 19, FDR VA Hospital, Montrose, New York 10548.
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Kadden, R.M., Washton, A.M., McMillan, J.C. et al. Varying temporal placement during CS of an added stimulus correlated with non-delivery of UCS. Pav. J. Biol. Sci. 10, 76–84 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03001151
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03001151