Abstract
Three experiments, using rats, demonstrated the encoding of a food unconditioned stimulus (US) in a simple Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. In all three studies, one stimulus was used to signal the delivery of pellets and a different stimulus was used to signal the delivery of sucrose. In Experiment 1, postconditioning devaluation of one of the food USs selectively reduced the frequency of conditioned magazine-directed behavior during the stimulus trained with that US. In Experiment 2, transfer of the stimuli to instrumental responses resulted in selective depression of the response trained with a different outcome. In Experiment 3, acquisition of stimulus-outcome learning was impaired by unsignaled intertrial presentations of the same outcome but not of a different outcome. These results indicate that a detailed representation of the outcome is encoded in the normal course of Pavlovian conditioning.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bakal, C. W., Johnson, R. D., &Rescorla, R. A. (1974). The effect of change in US quality on the blocking effect.Pavlovian Journal of Biological Sciences,9, 97–103.
Baxter, D. J., &Zamble, E. (1982). Reinforcer and response specificity in appetitive transfer of control.Animal Learning & Behavior,10, 201–210.
Bull, J. A., III (1970). An interaction between appetitive Pavlovian CSs and instrumental avoidance responding.Learning & Motivation,1, 18–26.
Bull, J. A., III, &Overmter, J. B. (1968). Additive and subtractive properties of excitation and inhibition.Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology,66, 511–514.
Capaldi, E. D., Hovancik, J. R., &Friedman, F (1976). Effects of expectancies of different reward magnitudes in transfer from non-contingent pairings to instrumental performance.Learning & Motivation,7, 197–210.
Carlson, J. G., &Wielkiewicz, R. M. (1976). Mediators of the effects of magnitude of reinforcement.Learning & Motivation,7, 184–196.
Cleland, G. G., &Davey, G. C. L. (1982). The effects of satiation and reinforcer devaluation on signal-centered behavior in the rat.Learning & Motivation,13, 343–360.
Colwill, R. M. (1994). Associative representations of instrumental contingencies. In D. L. Medin (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 28, pp. 1–72). New York: Academic Press.
Colwill, R. M., &Rescorla, R. A. (1985a). Extensive training, partial reinforcement, and temporal gaps do not affect S-S learning in second-order autoshaoping.Animal Learning & Behavior,13, 165–170.
Colwill, R. M., &Rescorla, R. A. (1985b). Post-conditioning devaluation of a reinforcer affects instrumental responding.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,11, 120–132.
Colwill, R. M., &Rescorla, R. A. (1986). Associative structures in instrumental learning. In G. H. Bower (Ed.),The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 20, pp. 55–104). New York: Academic Press.
Colwill, R. M., &Rescorla, R. A. (1988). Associations between the discriminative stimulus and the reinforcer in instrumental learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,14, 155–164.
Colwill, R. M., &Rescorla, R. A. (1990). Effect of reinforcer devaluation on discriminative control of instrumental behavior.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,16, 40–47.
Davey, G. C. L., &Cleland, G. G. (1982). Topography of signal-centered behavior in the rat: Effects of deprivation state and reinforcer type.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,38, 291–304.
Dickinson, A., &Mackintosh, N. J. (1979). Reinforcer specificity in the enhancement of conditioning by post trial surprise.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,5, 162–177.
Dickinson, A., Nicholas, D. J., &Adams, C. D. (1983). The effect of the instrumental training contingency on susceptibility to reinforcer devaluation.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,35B, 35–51.
Durlach, P. J. (1983). The effect of signalling intertrial USs in au-toshaping.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,9, 374–389.
Durlach, P. J., &Shane, D. O. (1993). The effect of intertrial food presentations on anticipatory goal-tracking in the rat.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,46 B, 289–318.
Fantino, E. (1965). Some data on the discriminative stimulus hypothesis of secondary reinforcement.Psychological Record,15, 409–415.
Ganesan, R., &Pearce, J. M. (1988). Effect of changing the unconditioned stimulus on appetitive blocking.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,14, 280–291.
Hawkins, R. D., Lalevic, N., Clark, G. A., &Kandel, E. R. (1989). Classical conditioning of theaplysia siphon-withdrawal reflex exhibits response specificity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,86, 7620–7624.
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. (1979a). Differential effects of omission contingencies on various components of Pavlovian appetitive conditioned responding in rats.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,5, 178–193.
Holland, P. C. (1979b). The effects of qualitative and quantitative variation in the US on individual components of Pavlovian appetitive conditioned behavior in rats.Animal Learning & Behavior,7, 424432.
Holland, P. C. (1984). Unblocking in Pavlovian appetitive conditioning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,10, 476–497.
Holland, P. C. (1988). Excitation and inhibition in unblocking.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,14, 261–279.
Holland, P. C., &Rescorla, R. A. (1975). Second-order conditioning with food unconditioned stimulus.Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology,88, 459467.
Holland, P. C., &Straub, J. J. (1979). Differential effects of two ways of devaluing the unconditioned stimulus after Pavlovian appetitive conditioning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,5, 65–78.
Jenkins, H. M., &Moore, B. R. (1973). The form of the autoshaped response with food or water reinforcers.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,20, 163–181.
Kaye, H., &Pearce, J. M. (1984). The strength of the orienting response during Pavlovian conditioning.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,10, 90–109.
Kruse, J. M., Overmter, J. B., Konz, W. A., &Rokke, E. (1983). Pavlovian conditioned stimulus effects upon instrumental choice behavior are reinforcer specific.Learning & Motivation,14, 165–181.
Lamon, B. C., &Ztegler, H. P. (1984). Grasping in the pigeon (Columbia livid): Stimulus control during conditioned and consummatery responses.Animal Learning & Behavior,12, 223–231.
Mackintosh, N. J. (1983).Conditioning and associative learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morgan, M. J. (1974). Resistance to satiation.Animal Behaviour,22, 449–466.
Pavlov, I. P. (1927).Conditioned reflexes (G. V Anrep, Trans.). London: Oxford University Press.
Rescorla, R. A. (1973). Effect of US habituation following conditioning.Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology,82, 137–143.
Rescorla, R. A. (1977). Pavlovian second-order conditioning: Some implications for instrumental behavior. In H. Davis & H. M. B. Hurwitz (Eds.),Operant-Pavlovian interactions (pp. 133–164). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rescorla, R. A. (1980).Pavlovian second-order conditioning. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rescorla, R. A. (1984). Signaling intertrial shocks attenuates their negative effect on conditioned suppression.Bulletin of the Psycho-nomic Society,22, 225–228.
Rescorla, R. A., &Cunningham, C. L. (1978). Within-compound flavor associations.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,4, 267–275.
Rescorla, R. A., &Lolokdo, V. M. (1965). Inhibition of avoidance behavior.Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology,59, 406–412.
Skelton, R. W., Spetch, M. L., &Wilkte, D. M. (1980). A method for automatically recording topographical differences in pigeons’ keypecking for food and water reinforcers.Behavior Research Methods & Instrumentation,12, 349–352.
Spetch, M. L., Wilkie, D. M., &Skelton, R. W. (1981). Control of pigeons’ keypecking topography by a schedule of alternating food and water reward.Animal Learning & Behavior,9, 223–229.
Stanhope, K. J. (1989). Dissociation of the effect of reinforcer type and response strength on the force of a conditioned response.Animal Learning & Behavior,17, 311–321.
Stanhope, K. J. (1990). Effect of intertrial unconditioned stimulus (US) presentations upon responding to a conditioned stimulus predictive of either the same or a different appetitive US.Learning & Motivation,21, 266–286.
Stanhope, K. J. (1992). The representation of the reinforcer and the force of the pigeon’s keypeckin first- and second-order conditioning.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,44B, 137–158.
Stickney, K. J., &Donahoe, J. W. (1983). Attenuation of blocking by a change in US locus.Animal Learning & Behavior,11, 60–66.
Tate, M. W., &Clelland, R. C. (1957).Nonparametric and shortcut statistics in the social, biological and medical sciences. Danville, IL: Interstate Printers and Publishers.
Trapold, M. A. (1970). Are expectancies based upon different positive reinforcing events discriminably different?Learning & Motivation,1, 129–140.
Walters, E. T. (1989). Transformation of siphon responses during conditioning ofaplysia suggests a model of primitive stimulus-response association.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,86, 7616–7619.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
These experiments were supported by National Science Foundation Grants BNS 83-08176, to R. A. Rescorla, and BNS 89-15342, to R.M.C.; by a Brown University grant, BRSG 5-27469, to R.M.C.; and by an award from the Nassau Fund of the University of Pennsylvania to D.K.M. We thank R. A. Rescorla for helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Colwill, R.M., Motzkin, D.K. Encoding of the unconditioned stimulus in Pavlovian conditioning. Animal Learning & Behavior 22, 384–394 (1994). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209158
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209158