Abstract
Recent reports indicate that conditioning to contextual cues importantly modulates the amount of trace conditioning. According to this view, the strength of conditioning to a trace CS should be inversely related to the extent to which other external stimuli already predict US occurrence. An experiment with pigeons in an autoshaping (sign-tracking) preparation examined this proposition. Insertion of a tone in the 12-sec gap between CS and US led to strong CS responding, except for the case in which the tone also overlapped the CS. However, weak CS responding was obtained when the tone filled only the first or last half of the CS-US gap, even though CS and tone did not overlap. These findings are discussed in terms of an explanation of the effects of gap filling based on conditioning to “local” and “general” contextual cues, and in terms of the possible contributions of second-order conditioning.
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This article is based on a portion of a dissertation submitted to Indiana University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree. The research was supported by NIMH Grant MH19300, awarded to Eliot Hearst, and by an Indiana University doctoral grant-in-aid.
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Kaplan, P.S. Bridging temporal gaps between CS and US in autoshaping: A test of a local context hypothesis. Animal Learning & Behavior 12, 142–148 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213133
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213133