Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Extinction of specific stimulus –outcome (S-O) associations in Pavlovian learning with an extended CS procedure.
Three experiments with male and female rats were conducted to examine the effects of Pavlovian extinction training on Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) in a task in which the unconditioned stimulus (US) was presented at an early time point within an extended conditioned stimulus (CS). Two instrumental responses were trained with different reinforcing outcomes (R1-O1, R2-O2) and then, independently, 2 stimuli were trained with those outcomes (S1-O1, S2-O2). One group then underwent an extinction treatment (S1-, S2-) and a second was merely exposed to the experimental contexts without any stimulus events. Finally, the...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - May 4, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Delamater, Andrew R.; Schneider, Kevin; Derman, Rifka C. Source Type: research

Do salient features overshadow learning of other features in category learning?
In this study, we reversed this pattern and examined the role of an aversive stimulus, shock, as a feature of a complex stimulus composed of several features, rather than as an outcome. In particular, we used a category learning paradigm in which multiple features predicted category membership and asked whether a salient, aversive feature would reduce learning of other category features through cue competition. Three experiments compared a condition in which 1 category had among its 6 features a painful “sting” (shock) and the other category a distinctive sound (the critical features) to a control condition in which th...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - May 4, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Murphy, Gregory L.; Dunsmoor, Joseph E. Source Type: research

Assessing the acquisition of anticipatory responding in the pigeon using reaction time.
We report a novel method for investigating the acquisition of anticipatory responding in the pigeon. Four pigeons (Columba livia) received food for pecking a starburst target stimulus displayed in the bottom-left or bottom-right portion of a computer screen. The target stimulus was preceded by 1 of 3 fractal images displayed in either the upper-left or upper-right portion of the screen: 1 of the fractals was perfectly correlated with the target appearing in the bottom-left, the second fractal was perfectly correlated with the target appearing in the bottom-right, and the third fractal was uncorrelated with the location of ...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - April 6, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Garc ía-Gallardo, Daniel; Navarro, Víctor M.; Wasserman, Edward A. Source Type: research

Causal superlearning arising from interactions among cues.
Superconditioning refers to supernormal responding to a conditioned stimulus (CS) that sometimes occurs in classical conditioning when the CS is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) in the presence of a conditioned inhibitor for that US. In the present research, we conducted 4 experiments to investigate causal superlearning, a phenomenon in human causal learning analogous to superconditioning. Experiment 1 demonstrated superlearning relative to appropriate control conditions. Experiment 2 showed that superlearning wanes when the number of cues used in an experiment is relatively large. Experiment 3 determined that ev...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - April 6, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Urushihara, Kouji; Miller, Ralph R. Source Type: research

Blocking of flavor-nausea learning by non-flavor cues: Assessment through orofacial reactivity responses.
We investigated, using orofacial reactivity assessment, whether nonflavor context cues can elicit conditioned aversive reactions, and also whether context cues interfere, through blocking, with the reduction in taste palatability during taste aversion conditioning. Experiment 1 showed that a context previously paired with LiCl evoked aversive orofacial reactions, and also attenuated the reduction in palatability of a saccharin solution which was paired with LiCl in that context. In Experiment 2, this blocking effect was abolished when the rats were given nonreinforced exposure to the previously LiCl-paired context (context...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - April 6, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Gasalla, Patricia; Soto, Alberto; Dwyer, Dominic M.; L ópez, Matías Source Type: research

Familiarity-based stimulus generalization of conditioned suppression.
We report that stimulus novelty/familiarity is able to modulate stimulus generalization and discuss the theoretical implications of novelty/familiarity coding. Rats in Skinner boxes received clicker → shock pairings before generalization testing to a tone. Before clicker training, different groups of rats received preexposure treatments designed to systematically modulate the clicker and the tone’s novelty and familiarity. Rats whose preexposure matched novelty/familiarity (i.e., either bot h or neither clicker and tone were preexposed) showed enhanced suppression to the tone relative to rats whose preexposure mixed no...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - April 6, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Robinson, Jasper; Whitt, Emma J.; Jones, Peter M. Source Type: research

Rapid visual processing of picture stimuli by pigeons in an RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) task.
Three experiments that were carried out in series with 5 pigeons used novel training methods to investigate the rapid visual processing of picture stimuli by pigeons. On each trial, a sequence containing 1 of 2 bird pictures (the target) and nontarget bird pictures (the distractors) was presented. After the termination of the last item in the sequence, the pigeons were required to choose 1 of 2 colored squares corresponding to the target presented in the preceding sequence. The pigeons learned the task with 2-item lists (1 target and 1 distractor) in Experiment1 and with 3-item lists (1 target and 2 distractors) in Experim...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - April 6, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Jitsumori, Masako; Ushitani, Tomokazu Source Type: research

Studies of learned helplessness in honey bees ( < em > Apis mellifera ligustica < /em > ).
The current study reports 2 experiments investigating learned helplessness in the honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica). In Experiment 1, we used a traditional escape method but found the bees ’ activity levels too high to observe changes due to treatment conditions. The bees were not able to learn in this traditional escape procedure; thus, such procedures may be inappropriate to study learned helplessness in honey bees. In Experiment 2, we used an alternative punishment, or passive av oidance, method to investigate learned helplessness. Using a master and yoked design where bees were trained as either master or yoked an...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - February 13, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Dinges, Christopher W.; Varnon, Christopher A.; Cota, Lisa D.; Slykerman, Stephen; Abramson, Charles I. Source Type: research

"Effects of reinforcer distribution during response elimination on resurgence of an instrumental behavior": Correction to Schepers and Bouton (2015).
Reports an error in "Effects of reinforcer distribution during response elimination on resurgence of an instrumental behavior" by Scott T. Schepers and Mark E. Bouton (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 2015[Apr], Vol 41[2], 179-192). The mean R2 responding during the resurgence test in the alternating group in the lower right panel of Figure 4 was incorrect. A corrected figure is given in the correction. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-12206-001.) Resurgence has commonly been viewed as the recovery of an extinguished instrumental behavior that occurs ...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Schepers, Scott T.; Bouton, Mark E. Source Type: research

Rats show adaptive choice in a metacognitive task with high uncertainty.
Metacognition refers to the use of one ’s cognitive processes to coordinate behavior. Many higher cognitive functions such as feeling-of-knowing judgment and theory of mind are thought to be metacognitive processes. Although some primate species also show this ability in the form of behavioral control, a rodent model of metacognition i s required for advanced studies of this phenomenon at behavioral, molecular, and neural levels. Here we show that rats could reliably be trained in a metacognitive task. The rats were trained to remember the location of a nose-poke hole and later indicate the location via a behavioral task...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Yuki, Shoko; Okanoya, Kazuo Source Type: research

The quantification of behavior in the presence of compound stimuli.
Animals live in complex environments where multiple cues can provide consistent or conflicting information about how to behave most effectively. Previous research has described how animals combine information with qualitative combination rules; the goal of this article was to quantify the combination rule used by rats when 2 previously trained stimuli of separate modalities were presented simultaneously. Rats in a lever box were trained with 2 stimuli (light and tone) assigned given probabilities of food before they were tested in compound. Changes in the probability of food assigned to each stimulus produced linear change...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Kalafut, Kathryn L.; Church, Russell M. Source Type: research

Effects of outcome devaluation on instrumental behaviors in a discriminated heterogeneous chain.
Operant behavior often takes place in a sequence, or chain, of linked responses that lead to a reinforcer. We have recently studied rats performing a discriminated heterogeneous behavior chain that involves the presentation of a discriminative stimulus (e.g., a panel light) to set the occasion for a procurement behavior (e.g., a lever press) that leads to a second stimulus (e.g., a second panel light) that indicates that a consumption response (e.g., a chain pull) will be reinforced. The present study assessed the role played by a representation of the reinforcer in controlling the performance of the responses in this chai...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Thrailkill, Eric A.; Bouton, Mark E. Source Type: research

Superior ambiguous occasion setting with visual than temporal feature stimuli.
Three experiments with rats compared the relative ease with which different sets of visual or temporal cues could participate in Pavlovian learning. In Experiment 1, 1 group was trained to discriminate between visual cues (Light vs. Dark), whereas the other group learned to discriminate between temporal cues (early [10 s] vs. late [90 s]). Both groups learned to distinguish food-paired from nonpaired periods equally well. In Experiment 2, 2 groups were trained on an ambiguous occasion setting task. For Group Visual, a 2-min Light period signaled that 1 10-s auditory conditioned stimulus, CS1, was reinforced with 1 uncondit...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Delamater, Andrew R.; Derman, Rifka C.; Harris, Justin A. Source Type: research

Habituation and conditioning: Salience change in associative learning.
Repeated presentation of a single stimulus produces habituation —engages a learning process that results in a reduction of the ability of the stimulus to evoke its customary response. Repeated stimulus presentation is a feature of the standard procedure for classical conditioning, although, in this case, subjects experience repeated presentations of 2 stimuli occurring in sequence: S1–S2. We ask how habituation to each of these stimuli (S1 and S2) is influenced by this form of sequential presentation and what implications any effects might have for the understanding of both conditioning and habituation itself. Our revi...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Hall, Geoffrey; Rodr íguez, Gabriel Source Type: research

Correction to Schepers and Bouton (2015).
Reports an error in "Effects of reinforcer distribution during response elimination on resurgence of an instrumental behavior" by Scott T. Schepers and Mark E. Bouton (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 2015[Apr], Vol 41[2], 179-192). The mean R2 responding during the resurgence test in the alternating group in the lower right panel of Figure 4 was incorrect. A corrected figure is given in the correction. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-12206-001.) Resurgence has commonly been viewed as the recovery of an extinguished instrumental behavior that occurs ...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Schepers, Scott T.; Bouton, Mark E. Source Type: research