Abstract
Three conditioned suppression experiments with rats as subjects investigated the influence of higher order associations in determining the response potential of a target stimulus. In these experiments, a Pavlovian conditioned inhibitor was compounded with the target cue during extinction treatment. In Experiment 1, strong suppression was observed to the target cue that was given extinction treatment in the presence of a conditioned inhibitor, relative to a target that was extinguished with an associatively neutral cue or was extinguished alone, suggestive of enhanced protection from extinction provided by a conditioned inhibitor. This effect was replicated in a sensory preconditioning preparation in Experiment 2; in Experiment 3, in a sensory preconditioning preparation, this protection effect was retroactively attenuated when the conditioned excitor used to train the conditioned inhibitor was extinguished following extinction of the target. This provides evidence that, at least in a sensory preconditioning preparation, stimuli that are only indirectly associated with the target cue can contribute to the response potential of that target.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blaisdell, A. P., Bristol, A. S., Gunther, L. M., & Miller, R. R. (1998). Overshadowing and latent inhibition counteract each other: Support for the comparator hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 24, 335–351.
Bouton, M. E. (2004). Context and behavioral processes in extinction. Learning & Memory, 11, 485–494.
Chang, R. C., Blaisdell, A. P., & Miller, R. R. (2003). Backward conditioning: Mediation by the context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 29, 171–183.
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 mediate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgments. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49B, 60–80.
Friedman, B. X., Blaisdell, A. P., Escobar, M., & Miller, R. R. (1998). Comparator mechanisms and conditioned inhibition: Conditioned stimulus preexposure disrupts Pavlovian conditioned inhibition but not explicitly unpaired inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 24, 453–466.
Hallam, S. C., Matzel, L. D., Sloat, J. S., & Miller, R. R. (1990). Excitation and inhibition as a function of posttraining extinction of the excitatory cue used in Pavlovian inhibition training. Learning & Motivation, 21, 59–84.
Kaplan, P. S. (1985). Explaining the effects of relative time in trace conditioning: A preliminary test of a comparator hypothesis. Animal Learning & Behavior, 13, 233–238.
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.
Kasprow, W. J., Schachtman, T. R., & Miller, R. R. (1987). The comparator hypothesis of conditioned response generation: Manifest conditioned excitation and inhibition as a function of relative excitatory strengths of CS and conditioning context at the time of testing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 13, 395–406.
Laborda, M. L., Witnauer, J. E., & Miller, R. R. (2009). Contrasting AAC and ABC renewal: The role of context association. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Larrauri, J. A., & Schmajuk, N. A. (2008). Attentional, associative, and configural mechanisms in extinction. Psychological Review, 115, 640–676.
Lovibond, P. F., Davis, N. R., & O’Flaherty, A. S. (2000). Protection from extinction in human fear conditioning. Behavior Research & Therapy, 38, 967–983.
Lysle, D. T., & Fowler, H. (1985). Inhibition as a “slave” process: Deactivation of conditioned inhibition through extinction of conditioned excitation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 11, 71–94.
Mackintosh, N. J. (1975). A theory of attention: Variations in the associability of stimuli with reinforcement. Psychological Review, 82, 276–298.
McConnell, B. L., Wheeler, D. S., Urcelay, G. P., & Miller, R. R. (2009). Protection from latent inhibition provided by a conditioned inhibitor. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 35, 498–508.
Miller, R. R., Hallam, S. C., & Grahame, N. J. (1990). Inflation of comparator stimuli following CS training. Animal Learning & Behavior, 18, 434–443.
Miller, R. R., Hallam, S. C., Hong, J. Y., & Dufore, D. S. (1991). Associative structure of differential inhibition: Implications for models of conditioned inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 17, 141–150.
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). New York: Academic Press.
Myers, J. M., & Wells, 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. London: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press.
Pearce, J. M., & Wilson, P. N. (1991). Effects of extinction with a compound conditioned stimulus. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 17, 151–162.
Pineño, O. (2007). Protection from extinction by concurrent presentation of an excitor or an extensively extinguished CS. Psicológica, 28, 151–166.
Rescorla, R. A. (1971). Variation in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement following prior inhibitory conditioning. Learning & Motivation, 2, 113–123.
Rescorla, R. A. (2000). Extinction can be enhanced by a concurrent excitor. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 26, 251–260.
Rescorla, R. A. (2003). Protection from extinction. Learning & Behavior, 31, 124–132.
Rescorla, R. A. (2006). Deepened extinction from compound stimulus presentation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 135–144.
Rescorla, R. A., & Holland, P. C. (1977). Associations in Pavlovian conditioned inhibition. Learning & Motivation, 8, 429–447.
Rescorla, R. A., & Wagner, A. R. (1972). A theory of Pavlovian conditioning: Variations in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement. In A. Black & W. F. Prokasy (Eds.), Classical conditioning II (pp. 64–99). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Soltysik, S. S., Wolfe, G. E., Nicholas, T., Wilson, W. J., & Garcia-Sanchez, J. L. (1983). Blocking of inhibitory conditioning within a serial conditioned stimulus-conditioned inhibitor compound: Maintenance of acquired behavior without an unconditioned stimulus. Learning & Motivation, 14, 1–29.
Stout, S. C., & Miller, R. R. (2007). Sometimes-competing retrieval (SOCR): A formalization of the comparator hypothesis. Psychological Review, 114, 759–783.
Thomas, B. L., & Ayres, J. J. B. (2004). Use of the ABA fear renewal paradigm to assess the effects of extinction with co-present fear inhibitors or excitors: Implications for theories of extinction and for treating human fears and phobias. Learning & Motivation, 35, 22–52.
Urcelay, G. P., Lipatova, O., & Miller, R. R. (2009). Constraints on enhanced extinction resulting from extinction treatment in the presence of an added excitor. Learning & Motivation, 40, 343–363.
Urushihara, K., Wheeler, D. S., Pineño, O., & Miller, R. R. (2005). An extended comparator account of superconditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 31, 184–198.
Van Hamme, L. J., Ŵasserman, E. A. (1994). Cue competition in causality judgment: The role of nonrepresentation of compound stimulus elements. Learning & Motivation, 25, 127–151.
Wagner, A. R. (1981). SOP: A model of automatic memory processing in animal behavior. In N. E. Spear & R. R. Miller (Eds.), Information processing in animals: Memory mechanisms (pp. 5–47). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Williams, D. A., Travis, G. M., & Overmier, J. B. (1986). Withincompound associations modulate the relative effectiveness of differential and Pavlovian conditioned inhibition procedures. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 12, 351–362.
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
NIMH Grant 33881 provided support for this research. We thank Joseph Alessandro, Eric Curtis, Jeremie Jozefoviez, Mario Laborda, Gonzalo Miguez, Cody Polack, Sarah Sterling, Yumu Tanaka, and James Witnauer for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McConnell, B.L., Miller, R.R. Protection from extinction provided by a conditioned inhibitor. Learning & Behavior 38, 68–79 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.38.1.68
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.38.1.68