Abstract
Prior reports have shown that instrumental responses are selectively depressed by devaluing the outcomes they have earned. This occurs even when the response-outcome association has been subjected to a decremental procedure, such as extinction or replacement of that outcome by another. From these results it has been concluded that response-outcome associations are unaffected by various decremental procedures. However, since devaluation takes several days, it is possible that the decremental treatments do attenuate the response-outcome association but it then spontaneously recovers during the time of devaluation. Four experiments investigated this possibility by replicating previous findings under circumstances that allow assessment of recovery for other, concurrently treated, behaviors. The primary responses continued to show full sensitivity to devaluation of their outcomes, despite evidence that recovery of the other behaviors was far from complete. This suggests that the original response-outcome association was preserved and fully functional throughout the decremental and devaluation phases of the experiment.
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This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grants BNS-88-03514 and IBN94-04676.
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Rescorla, R.A. Response-outcome associations remain functional through interference treatments. Animal Learning & Behavior 24, 450–458 (1996). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199016
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199016