Abstract
Three experiments with rat subjects examined the effects of contextual stimuli on performance in appetitive conditioning. A 10-sec tone conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with a food-pellet unconditioned stimulus (US); conditioning was indexed by the observation of headjerking, a response of the rat to auditory stimuli associated with food. In Experiment 1, a context switch following initial conditioning did not affect conditioned responding to the tone; however, when the response was extinguished in the different context, a return to the original conditioning context “renewed” extinguished responding. These results were replicated in Experiments 2 and 3 after equating exposure to the two contexts (Experiment 2) and massing the conditioning and extinction trials (Experiment 3). The results of Experiment 1 also demonstrated that separate exposure to the US following extinction reinstates extinguished responding to the tone; this effect was further shown to depend at least partly on presenting the US in the context in which testing is to occur (Experiments 2 and 3). Overall, the results are consistent with previous data from aversive conditioning procedures. In either appetitive or aversive conditioning, the context may be especially important in affecting performance after extinction.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balsam, P. D., &Schwartz, A. L. (1981). Rapid contextual conditioning in autoshaping.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,7, 382–393.
Bouton, M. E. (1984). Differential control by context in the inflation and reinstatement paradigms.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,10, 56–74.
Bouton, M. E. (1988). Context and ambiguity in the extinction of emotional learning: Implications for exposure therapy.Behaviour Research & Therapy,26, 137–149.
Bouton, M. E., &Bolles, R. C. (1979a). Contextual control of the extinction of conditioned fear.Learning & Motivation,10, 445–466.
Bouton, M. E., &Bolles, R. C. (1979b). Role of conditioned contextual stimuli in reinstatement of extinguished fear.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,5, 368–378.
Bouton, M. E., &Bolles, R. C. (1985). Contexts, event-memories, and extinction. In P. D. Balsam & A. Tomie (Eds.),Context and learning (pp. 133–166). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bouton, M. E., &King, D. A. (1983). Contextual control of the extinction of conditioned fear: Tests for the associative value of the context.Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Behavior Processes,9, 248–265.
Bouton, M. E., &King, D. A. (1986). Effect of context on performance to conditioned stimuli with mixed histories of reinforcement and nonreinforcement.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,12, 4–15.
Bouton, M. E., &Swartzentruber, D. (1986). Analysis of the associative and occasion-setting properties of contexts participating in a Pavlovian discrimination.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,12, 333–350.
Bouton, M. E., &Swartzentruber, D. (1989). Slow reacquisition following extinction: Context, encoding, and retrieval mechanisms.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,15, 43–53.
Channell, S., &Hall, G. (1983). Contextual effects in latent inhibition with an appetitive conditioning procedure.Animal Learning & Behavior,11, 67–74.
Gibbon, J., &Balsam, P. (1981). Spreading association in time. In C. M. Locurto, H. S. Terrace, & J. Gibbon (Eds.),Autoshaping and conditioning theory (pp. 219–253). New York: Academic Press.
Grau, J. W., &Rescorla, R. A. (1984). Role of context in autoshaping.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,10, 324–332.
Hanford, P. V., Mulvaney, D. E., &Kelfer, D. A. (1980). The effect of novel environments on CS extinction in a conditioned suppression paradigm.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,16, 341–344.
Holland, P. C. (1977). Conditioned stimulus as a determinant of the form of the Pavlovian conditioned response.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,3, 77–104.
Holland, P. C. (1979). The effects of qualitative and quantitative variation in the US on individual components of Pavlovian appetitive conditioned behavior in rats.Animal Learning & Behavior,7, 424–432.
Holland, P. C. (1985). The nature of conditioned inhibition in serial and simultaneous feature negative discriminations. In R. R. Miller & N. E. Spear (Eds.),Information processing in animals: Conditioned inhibition (pp. 267–297). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Howell, D. C. (1982).Statistical methods for psychology. Boston: Duxbury Press.
Jenkins, H. M., Barnes, R. A., &Barrera, F. J. (1981). Why autoshaping depends on trial spacing. In C. M. Locurto, H. S. Terrace, & J. Gibbon (Eds.),Autoshaping and conditioning theory. New York: Academic Press.
Kaplan, P. S., &Hearst, E. (1985). Contextual control and excitatory versus inhibitory learning: Studies of extinction, reinstatement, and interference In P. D. Balsam & A. Tomie (Eds.),Context and learning (pp. 195–224). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Lovibond, P. F., Preston, G. C., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1984). Context specificity of conditioning, extinction, and latent inhibition.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,10, 360–375.
Rescorla, R. A. (1985). Conditioned inhibition and facilitation. In R. R. Miller & N. E. Spear (Eds.),Information processing in animals. Conditioned inhibition (pp. 299–326). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rescorla, R. A., &Heth, C. D. (1975). Reinstatement of fear to an extinguished conditioned stimulus.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,1, 88–96.
Rescorla, R. A., &Wagner, A. R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning. Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement. In A. H. Black & W. F. Prokasy (Eds.),Classical conditioning II: Current research and theory (pp. 64–99). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Tomie, A. (1976). Interference with autoshaping by prior context conditioning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,2, 323–334.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by Grant BNS 86-07208 from the National Science Foundation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bouton, M.E., Peck, C.A. Context effects on conditioning, extinction, and reinstatement in an appetitive conditioning preparation. Animal Learning & Behavior 17, 188–198 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207634
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207634