Abstract
In Experiments 1A, 1B, and 1C, nonhuman subjects, rats, received long alternated exposures to two compound flavors, AX and BX, that shared one flavor in common, X. Following this, conditioning of an aversion to A was sufficient to establish B as a conditioned inhibitor of the aversive unconditioned stimulus, passing both summation and retardation tests. Two additional experiments (Experiments 2 and 3) expanded the generality of these results to humans, using similar designs but an auditory discrimination learning task. A set of notes sequentially presented served as cues and fictitious composers served as outcomes. Both summation and retardation effects were found (Experiments 2 and 3, respectively). Experiment 4 then sought to clarify the mechanism underlying these effects. The results are discussed within several theoretical frameworks, most centrally the McLaren, Kaye, and Mackintosh (1989) theory of perceptual learning.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Arcediano, F., Ortega, N., &Matute, H. (1996). A behavioural preparation for the study of human Pavlovian conditioning.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,49B, 270–283.
Artigas, A. A., &Chamizo, V. D. (1994). Efectos de la preexposición a un sabor más o menos complejo en la adquisición de una aversión y en la generalización a un segundo sabor [Effects of preexposure to a more or less complex flavor in the acquisition of an aversion and in generalization to a second flavor].Psicológica,15, 85–99.
Bennett, C. H., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1999). Comparison and contrast as a mechanism of perceptual learning?Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,52B, 253–272.
Bennett, C. H., Scahill, V. L., Griffiths, D. P., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1999). The role of inhibitory associations in perceptual learning.Animal Learning & Behavior,27, 333–345.
Bennett, C. H., Wills, S. J., Wells, J. O., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1994). Reduced generalization following preexposure: Latent inhibition of common elements or a difference in familiarity?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,20, 232–239.
Catena, A., Maldonado, A, &Cándido, A. (1998). The effect of the frequency of judgment and the type of trials on covariation learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,24, 481–495.
Chamizo, V. D., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1989). Latent learning and latent inhibition in maze discriminations.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,41B, 21–31.
Cleeremans, A. (1997). Sequence learning in a dual-stimulus setting.Psychological Research,60, 72–86.
Colle, H.A., &Welsh, A. (1976). Acoustic masking in primary memory.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,15, 17–31.
Dickinson, A., &Burke, J. (1996). Within compound associations mediate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgements.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,49B, 60–80.
Dwyer, D.M., Mackintosh, N. J., &Boakes, R. A. (1998). Simultaneous activation of the representations of absent cues results in the formation of excitatory association between them.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,24, 163–171.
Espinet, A., Iraola, J. A., Bennett, C. H., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1995). Inhibitory associations between neutral stimuli in flavoraversion conditioning.Animal Learning & Behavior,23, 361–368.
Frensch, P.A., &Miner, C. S. (1994). Effects of presentation rate and individual differences in short-term memory capacity on an indirect measure of serial learning.Memory & Cognition,22, 95–110.
Graham, S. (1999). Retrospective revaluation and inhibitory associations: Does perceptual learning modulate our perception of the contingencies between events?Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,52B, 159–185.
Hall, G. (1991).Perceptual and associative learning. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hall, G. (1996). Learning about associatively activated stimulus representations: Implications for acquired equivalence and perceptual learning.Animal Learning & Behavior,24, 233–255.
Harris, J.A., &Westbrook, R. F. (1998). Retroactive revaluation of an odor-taste association.Animal Learning & Behavior,26, 326–335.
Holland, P. C. (1981). Acquisition of representation-mediated conditioned food aversions.Learning & Motivation,12, 1–8.
Holland, P. C. (1990). Event representation in Pavlovian conditioning.Cognition,37, 105–131.
Honey, R.C., Bateson, P., &Horn, G. (1994). The role of stimulus comparison in perceptual learning: An investigation with the domestic chick.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,47B, 83–103.
Jiménez, L., &Méndez, C. (1999). Which attention is needed for implicit sequence learning?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,25, 236–259.
Jones, D. M. (1993). Objects, streams and threads of auditory attention. In A. D. Baddeley & L. Weiskrantz (Eds.),Attention: Selection, awareness and control (pp. 87–103). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Larkin, M. J. W., Aitken, M. R. F., &Dickinson, A. (1998). Retrospective revaluation of causal judgments under positive and negative contingencies.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,24, 1331–1352.
Leonard, S., &Hall, G. (1999). Representation-mediated inhibitory learning in the conditioned-suppression procedure.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,52B, 145–158.
Mackintosh, N. J., Kaye, H., &Bennett, C. H. (1991). Perceptual learning in flavour aversion conditioning.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,43B, 297–322.
Matute, H., Arcediano, F., &Miller, R. R. (1996). Test question modulates cue competition between causes and between effects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,22, 182–196.
McCleland, J. L., &Rumelhart, D. E. (1985). Distributed memory and the representation of general and specific information.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,141, 159–188.
McLaren, I. P. L., Kaye, H., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1989). An associative theory of the representation of stimuli. In R. G. M. Morris (Ed.),Parallel distributed processing: Implications for psychology and neurobiology (pp. 102–130). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McLaren, I. P. L., &Mackintosh, N. J. (2000). An elemental model of associative learning: Latent inhibition and perceptual learning.Animal Learning & Behavior,28, 211–246.
Miller, R. R., &Matute, H. (1996). Biological significance in forward and backward blocking: Resolution of a discrepancy between animal conditioning and human causal judgment.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,125, 370–386.
Miller, R. R., &Matzel, L. D. (1988). The comparator hypothesis: A response rule for the expression of associations. In G. H. Bower (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 22, pp. 51–92). San Diego: Academic Press.
Peris, J. M. (1990, June).Sobre un modelo de memoria asociativa [On a model of associative memory]. Paper presented at the 2nd Congress of the Sociedad Española de PsicologÍa Comparada, San Sebastián.
Pineño, O., Ortega, N., &Matute, H. (2000). The relative activation of the associations modulates interference between elementallytrained cues.Learning & Motivation,31, 128–152.
Prados, J., Chamizo, V. D., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1999). Latent inhibition and perceptual learning in a swimming pool navigation task.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,25, 37–44.
Rescorla, R.A. (1969). Conditioned inhibition.Psychological Bulletin,72, 77–94.
Rescorla, R.A., &Cunningham, C. L. (1978). Within-compound flavor associations.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,2, 267–275.
Rescorla, R.A., &Wagner, A. R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and non-reinforcement. In A. H. Black & W. F. Prokasy (Eds.),Classical conditioning II: Current research and theory (pp. 64–99). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Rizley, R.C., &Rescorla, R.A. (1972). Associations in second-order conditioning and sensory preconditioning.Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology,81, 1–11.
Rodrigo, T., Chamizo, V.D., McLaren, I. P. L., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1994). Effects of preexposure to the same or different pattern of extra-maze cues on subsequent extra-maze discrimination.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,47B, 15–26.
Sansa, J., Chamizo, V. D., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1996). Aprendizaje perceptivo en discriminaciones espaciales [Perceptual learning in spatial discriminations].Psicológica,17, 279–295.
Savastano, H. I., Cole, R. P., Barnet, R. C., &Miller, R. R. (1999). Reconsidering conditioned inhibition.Learning & Motivation,30, 101–127.
Schneider, W., &Shiffrin, R. M. (1997). Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search and attention.Psychological Review,84, 1–66.
Shanks, D. R. (1985). Forward and backward blocking in human contingency judgment.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,37B, 1–21.
Shanks, D. R., &Dickinson, A. (1987). Associative accounts of causality judgment. In G. H. Bower (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation(Vol. 21, pp. 229–261). San Diego: Academic Press.
Shanks, D. R., &Dickinson, A. (1991). Instrumental judgment and performance under variations in action-outcome contingency and contiguity.Memory & Cognition,19, 353–360.
Shanks, D. R., &St. John, M. F. (1994). Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,17, 367–447.
Stadler, M. A. (1995). Role of attention in implicit learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,21, 674–685.
Symonds, S., &Hall, G. (1995). Perceptual learning in flavour aversion conditioning: Roles of stimulus comparison and latent inhibition of common stimulus elements.Learning & Motivation,26, 203–219.
Van Hamme, L. J., &Wasserman, E. A. (1994). Cue competition in causality judgements: The role of non-representation of compound stimulus elements.Learning & Motivation,25, 127–151.
Wagner, A. R. (1981). SOP: A model of automatic memory processing in animal behavior. In N. E. Spear & R. R. Miller (Eds.),Information processing in animals: Memory mechanisms (pp. 5–47). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Wasserman, E. A. (1993). Comparative cognition: Toward an understanding of cognition in behavior.Psychological Science,4, 156–161.
Williams, D.A., Overmier, J. B., &Lolordo, V.M. (1992). A reevaluation of Rescorla’s early dictums about Pavlovian conditioned inhibition.Psychological Bulletin,111, 275–290.
Yin, H., Barnet, R. C., &Miller, R. R. (1994). Second-order conditioning and Pavlovian conditioned inhibition: Operational similarities and differences.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,20, 419–428.
Young, M. E. (1995). On the origin of personal causal theories.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,2, 83–104.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by Grant PB97-0965 from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. The human equipment was built in the Departament d’Engineria de Sistemes, Automàtica i Informàtica Industrial of the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya. We are very grateful to Antoni Besses for elaborating the score used in the human experiments and for his musical advice in collaboration with Montserrat Vall-lloveras. We are also grateful to Helena Matute for her many helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and to Ralph R. Miller for excellent comments and for endless patience with the final manuscript in order to improve our English writing.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Artigas, A.A., Chamizo, V.D. & Peris, J.M. Inhibitory associations between neutral stimuli: A comparative approach. Animal Learning & Behavior 29, 46–65 (2001). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192815
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192815