Abstract
Two experiments assessed the degree to which Pavlovian facilitators were interchangeable with instrumental discriminative stimuli (Sds). In Experiment 1, rats were trained in a Pavlovian paradigm in which one stimulus (i.e., a facilitator) signaled the reinforcement of another stimulus (i.e., a target). Next, the rats were given instrumental discrimination training in which an Sd signaled the reinforcement of barpressing. A transfer test then assessed the capacity of the Pavlovian facilitator to promote barpressing. The results showed that the facilitator promoted significant barpressing, both when it was presented alone and when it was presented in compound with the Sd. Reliable transfer was not obtained with a “pseudofacilitator” control stimulus that, during training, was uninformative about the reinforcement of its target. Experiment 2 showed that a stimulus trained as an instrumental Sd reliably augmented responding to a stimulus previously trained as a target in a Pavlovian facilitation paradigm. A “pseudo-Sd” that, during training, was uninformative about the reinforcement of barpressing failed to promote such transfer. These results show that Pavlovian facilitators and instrumental Sds are interchangeable to a significant degree, and suggest that facilitators and Sds may act via similar mechanisms.
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This work was supported by Grant BNS-83081 from the National Science Foundation and by Grant T32 MH 17168 from the National Institute of Mental Health. This work was conducted while the first author was a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Neurological Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Davidson, T.L., Aparicio, J. & Rescorla, R.A. Transfer between Pavlovian facilitators and instrumental discriminative stimuli. Animal Learning & Behavior 16, 285–291 (1988). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209078
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209078