Abstract
In the present experiments, we examined the role of within-compound associations in the interaction of the overshadowing procedure with conditioned stimulus (CS) duration, using a conditioned suppression procedure with rats. In Experiment 1, we found that, with elemental reinforced training, conditioned suppression to the target stimulus decreased as CS duration increased (i.e., the CS duration effect), whereas, with compound reinforced training (i.e., the overshadowing procedure), conditioned suppression to the target stimulus increased as CS duration increased. In subsequent experiments, we replicated these findings with sensory preconditioning and demonstrated that extinction of the overshadowing stimulus results in retrospective revaluation with short CSs and in mediated extinction with long CSs. These results highlight the role of the duration of the stimulus in behavioral control. Moreover, these results illuminate one cause (the CS duration) of whether retrospective revaluation or mediated extinction will be observed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brogden, W. J. (1939). Sensory pre-conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 25, 323–332.
Clarke, J. C., Westbrook, R. F., & Irwin, J. (1979). Potentiation instead of overshadowing in the pigeon. Behavioral & Neural Biology, 25, 18–29.
Denniston, J. C., Miller, R. R., & Matute, H. (1996). Biological significance as a determinant of cue competition. Psychological Science, 7, 325–331.
Denniston, J. C., Savastano, H. I., & Miller, R. R. (2001). The extended comparator hypothesis: Learning by contiguity, responding by relative strength. In R. R. Mowrer & S. B. Klein (Eds.), Handbook of contemporary learning theories (pp. 65–117). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dickinson, A., & Burke, J. (1996). Within-compound associations me diate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgments. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49B, 60–80.
Dwyer, D. M. (1999). Retrospective revaluation or mediated conditioning? The effect of different reinforcers. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52B, 289–306.
Gibbon, J., & Balsam, P. D. (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.
Holland, P. C. (1990). Event representation in Pavlovian conditioning: Image and action. Cognition, 37, 105–131.
Holland, P. C. (1999). Overshadowing and blocking as acquisition deficits: No recovery after extinction of overshadowing or blocking cues. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52B, 307–333.
Jennings, D. J., Bonardi, C., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2007). Overshadowing and stimulus duration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 464–475.
Kaufman, M. A., & Bolles, R. C. (1981). A nonassociative aspect of overshadowing. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 18, 318–320.
Kehoe, J. E., & Graham, P. (1988). Summation and configuration: Stimulus compounding and negative patterning in the rabbit. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 14, 320–333.
Laborda, M., Witnauer, J. E., & Miller, R. R. (2008). Contrasting AAB and ABC renewal: The role of context associations. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Liljeholm, M., & Balleine, B. W. (2006). Stimulus salience and retrospective revaluation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 481–487.
Liljeholm, M., & Balleine, B. W. (2008). Mediated conditioning versus retrospective revaluation in humans: The influence of physical and functional similarity of cues. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 470–482.
Lipatova, O., Wheeler, D. S., Vadillo, M. A., & Miller, R. R. (2006). Recency-to-primacy shift in cue competition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 396–406.
Mackintosh, N. J. (1975). A theory of attention: Variations in the associability of stimuli with reinforcements. Psychological Review, 82, 276–298.
Mackintosh, N. J. (1976). Overshadowing and stimulus intensity. Animal Learning & Behavior, 4, 186–192.
Matzel, L. D., Schachtman, T. R., & Miller, R. R. (1985). Recovery of an overshadowed association achieved by extinction of the overshadowing stimulus. Learning & Motivation, 16, 398–412.
Matzel, L. D., Schuster, K., & Miller, R. R. (1987). Covariation in conditioned response strength between stimuli trained in compound. Animal Learning & Behavior, 15, 439–447.
Miller, R. R., & Matute, H. (1996). Biological significance in forward and backward blocking: Resolution of a discrepancy between animal conditioning and human causal judgment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 125, 370–386.
Miller, R. R., & Matzel, L. D. (1988). The comparator hypothesis: A response rule for the expression of associations. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 22, pp. 51–92). San Diego: Academic Press.
Myers, J. L., & Well, A. D. (2003). Research design and statistical analysis (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Oberling, P., Bristol, A. S., Matute, H., & Miller, R. R. (2000). Biological significance attenuates overshadowing, relative validity, and degraded contingency effects. Animal Learning & Behavior, 28, 172–186.
Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes (G. V. Anrep, Trans.). London: Oxford University Press.
Pearce, J. M., & Hall, G. (1980). A model of Pavlovian learning: Variations in the effectiveness of conditioned but not unconditioned stimuli. Psychological Review, 87, 532–552.
Rescorla, R. A. (1981). Simultaneous associations. In P. Harzem & M. D. Zeiler (Eds.), Predictability, correlation, and contiguity (pp. 47–80). New York: Wiley.
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.
Revusky, S., Parker, L. A., & Coombes, S. (1977). Flavor aversion learning: Extinction of the aversion to an interfering flavor after conditioning does not affect the aversion to the reference flavor. Behavioral & Neural Biology, 19, 503–508.
Rosas, J. M., & Alonso, G. (1996). Temporal discrimination and forgetting in conditioned suppression. Learning & Motivation, 27, 43–57.
Schachtman, T. D., Kasprow, W. J., Meyer, R. C., Bourne, M. J., & Hart, J. A. (1992). Extinction of the overshadowing CS after overshadowing in conditioned taste aversion. Animal Learning & Behavior, 20, 207–218.
Schneiderman, N., & Gormezano, I. (1964). Conditioning of the nictitating membrane of the rabbit as a function of CS-US interval. Journal of Comparative & Physiological Psychology, 57, 188–195.
Shevill, I., & Hall, G. (2004). Retrospective revaluation effects in the conditioned suppression procedure. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57B, 331–347.
Stout, S. C., Arcediano, F., Escobar, M., & Miller, R. R. (2003). Overshadowing as a function of trial number: Dynamics of first- and second-order comparator stimuli. Learning & Behavior, 31, 85–97.
Stout, S. C., & Miller, R. R. (2007). Sometimes-competing retrieval (SOCR): A formalization of the comparator hypothesis. Psychological Review, 114, 759–783.
Urushihara, K., & Miller, R. R. (2007). CS-duration and partial reinforcement effects counteract overshadowing in select situations. Learning & Behavior, 35, 201–213.
Urushihara, K., Stout, S. C., & Miller, R. R. (2004). The basic laws of conditioning differ for elemental cues and cues trained in compound. Psychological Science, 15, 268–271.
Van Hamme, L. J., & Wasserman, E. A. (1994). Cue competition in causality judgments: The role of nonpresentation of compound stimulus elements. Learning & Motivation, 25, 127–151.
Wagner, A. R. (1981). SOP: A model of autonomic memory processing in animal behavior. In N. E. Spear & R. R. Miller (Eds.), Information processing in animals: Memory mechanisms (pp. 1–47). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Westbrook, R. F., Homewood, J., Horn, K., & Clarke, J. C. (1983). Flavour-odour compound conditioning: Odour-potentiation and flavour-attenuation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35B, 13–33.
Wheeler, D. S., & Miller, R. R. (2008). Determinants of cue interactions. Behavioural Processes, 78, 191–203.
Witnauer, J. E., & Miller, R. R. (2007). Degraded contingency revisited: Posttraining extinction of a cover stimulus attenuates a target cue’s behavioral control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 440–450.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Support for this research was provided by NIMH Grant 33881. We thank Eric Curtis, Sean Gannon, Ryan Green, Jeremie Jozefowiez, Mario Laborda, Bridget McConnell, Mikael Molet, Lisa Ng, and James Witnauer for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sissons, H.T., Urcelay, G.P. & Miller, R.R. Overshadowing and CS duration: counteraction and a reexamination of the role of within-compound associations in cue competition. Learning & Behavior 37, 254–268 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.37.3.254
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.37.3.254