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.

Time, trials, and extinction.
Four experiments investigated the effect of number of trials and total duration of nonreinforced exposure to the conditioned stimulus (CS) on extinction of Pavlovian conditioning. Rats were first trained in a magazine approach paradigm with multiple CSs, each paired with the unconditioned stimulus (US) on a variable CS-US interval. During subsequent extinction, CSs would differ in the number and length of their extinction trials but would be matched for the total duration of exposure (e.g., 1 CS would have 20 trials per session with a mean length of 5 s; another CS would have 5 trials per session with a mean length of 20 s...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Harris, Justin A.; Andrew, Benjamin J. Source Type: research

Rescaling of temporal expectations during extinction.
Previous research suggests that extinction learning is temporally specific. Changing the conditioned stimulus (CS) duration between training and extinction can facilitate the loss of the conditioned response (CR) within the extinction session but impairs long-term retention of extinction. In 2 experiments using conditioned magazine approach with rats, we examined the relation between temporal specificity of extinction and CR timing. In Experiment 1, rats were trained on a 12-s, fixed CS –unconditional stimulus interval and then extinguished with CS presentations that were 6, 12, or 24 s in duration. The design of Experim...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - January 1, 2017 Category: Zoology Authors: Drew, Michael R.; Walsh, Carolyn; Balsam, Peter D. Source Type: research

Chrysippus ’s pigeon: Exclusion-based responding in an avian model.
Inference by exclusion can be exhibited by deductively responding to new stimuli that are presented in the context of familiar stimuli. We investigated exclusion-based responding in pigeons using a 2-alternative forced-choice discrimination task. In Phase 1, pigeons learned to associate 2 stimuli (A and B) with Response 1 and 2 stimuli (C and D) with Response 2. Following successful acquisition of these stimulus –response pairings, pigeons advanced to Phase 2, in which stimuli A and B were now reassigned to Response 2. Based on their Phase 1 training, pigeons should initially choose Response 1 when presented with A and B...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - December 12, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Lauffer, Marisol C.; Castro, Leyre; Wasserman, Edward A. Source Type: research

A theoretical note in interpretation of the “redundancy effect” in associative learning.
In a recent series of papers, Pearce and colleagues (e.g., Pearce, Dopson, Haselgrove,& Esber, 2012) have demonstrated a so-called “redundancy effect” in Pavlovian conditioning, which is the finding of more conditioned responding to a redundant cue trained as part of a blocking procedure (A+AX+) than to a redundant cue trained as part of a simple discrimination procedure (BY+CY–). This phenomenon presents a serious challe nge for those theories of conditioning that compute learning through a global error-term. In this paper, we use the Rescorla and Wagner (1972) model as a prototypical example to demonstrate that the...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 26, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Vogel, Edgar H.; Wagner, Allan R. Source Type: research

Mechanisms of midsession reversal accuracy: Memory for preceding events and timing.
The midsession reversal task involves a simultaneous discrimination between 2 stimuli (S1 and S2) in which, for the first half of each session, choice of S1 is reinforced and, for the last half, choice of S2 is reinforced. On this task, pigeons appear to time the occurrence of the reversal rather than using feedback from previous trials, resulting in increased numbers of errors. In the present experiments, we tested the hypothesis that pigeons make so many errors because they fail to remember the last response made and/or the consequence of making that response both of which are needed ideally as cues to respond on the nex...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 26, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Smith, Aaron P.; Beckmann, Joshua S.; Zentall, Thomas R. Source Type: research

Smelling the goodness: Sniffing as a behavioral measure of learned odor hedonics.
Pairing an odor and taste can change ratings of the odor ’s perceptual and hedonic characteristics. Behavioral indices of such changes are lacking and here we measured sniffing to assess learned changes in odor liking due to pairing with sweet and bitter tastes. Participants were divided on their liking for sweetness, as well as dietary disinhibition (T hree-Factor Eating Questionnaire–Disinhibition scale [TFEQ-D]), both of which influence hedonic odor–taste learning. In sweet likers, both sniff duration and peak amplitude increased for the sweet-paired odor. Sniff magnitude decreased for sweet- and quinine-paired od...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 9, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Yeomans, Martin R.; Prescott, John Source Type: research

Evidence for multiple processes contributing to the Perruchet effect: Response priming and associative learning.
The Perruchet effect constitutes a robust demonstration that it is possible to dissociate conditioned responding and expectancy in a random partial reinforcement design across a variety of human associative learning paradigms. This dissociation has been interpreted as providing evidence for multiple processes supporting learning, with expectancy driven by cognitive processes that lead to a Gambler ’s fallacy, and the pattern of conditioned responding (CRs) the result of an associative learning process. An alternative explanation is that the pattern of CRs is the result of exposure to the unconditioned stimulus (US). In 3...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 9, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Weidemann, Gabrielle; McAndrew, Amy; Livesey, Evan J.; McLaren, Ian P. L. Source Type: research

The role of instructions in perceptual learning using complex visual stimuli.
Although modeled on procedures used with nonhuman animals, some recent studies of perceptual learning in humans, using complex visual stimuli, differ in that they usually instruct participants to look for differences between the to-be-discriminated stimuli. This could encourage the use of mechanisms not available to animal subjects. To investigate the role of instructions, in 2 experiments, participants were given preexposure to checkerboards that were similar except for the presence of a small distinctive feature on each. For participants instructed to look for differences, performance on a same-different test was enhance...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 9, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Recio, Sergio A.; Iliescu, Adela F.; Mingorance, Sim ón P.; Bergés, Germán D.; Hall, Geoffrey; de Brugada, Isabel Source Type: research

Individual difference in configural associative learning.
Individuals differ in their ability to acquire associations between stimuli and paired outcomes, an ability that has been proposed to be independent of general metrics of intelligence or memory (e.g., Kaufman, DeYoung, Gray, Brown,& Mackintosh, 2009). The nature of these differences may reflect the type of associative structures acquired during learning, for instance, configuring stimuli to facilitate flexible learning and memory. We test the hypothesis that individuals differ in configural associative learning as distinct from simpler (elemental) stimulus-outcome learning. In Experiment 1 participants were screened for at...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 9, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Byrom, Nicola C.; Murphy, Robin A. Source Type: research

The origins of individual differences in how learning is expressed in rats: A general-process perspective.
Laboratory rats can exhibit marked, qualitative individual differences in the form of acquired behaviors. For example, when exposed to a signal-reinforcer relationship some rats show marked and consistent changes in sign-tracking (interacting with the signal; e.g., a lever) and others show marked and consistent changes in goal-tracking (interacting with the location of the predicted reinforcer; e.g., the food well). Here, stable individual differences in rats ’ sign-tracking and goal-tracking emerged over the course of training, but these differences did not generalize across different signal-reinforcer relationships (Ex...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - October 9, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Patitucci, E.; Nelson, A. J. D.; Dwyer, Dominic M.; Honey, R. C. Source Type: research

Serial pattern learning in pigeons: Rule-based or associative?
Extensive research has documented evidence for rule learning in sequential behavior tasks in both rats and humans. We adapted the 2-choice serial multiple choice (SMC) task developed for use with rats (Fountain& Rowan, 1995a) to study sequence behavior in pigeons. Pigeons were presented with 8 disks arranged in a circular array on a touchscreen, and pecking to an illuminated disk could lead to reward. Correct responding consisted of serial patterns involving “run” chunks of 3 elements (123 234, etc.). Some pigeons experienced a violation of the chunk rule in the final chunk. Unlike rats, pigeons made fewer errors on vi...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - September 4, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Garlick, Dennis; Fountain, Stephen B.; Blaisdell, Aaron P. Source Type: research

A high-fat high-sugar diet predicts poorer hippocampal-related memory and a reduced ability to suppress wanting under satiety.
Animal data indicate that greater intake of fats and sugars prevalent in a Western diet impairs hippocampal memory and tests of behavioral inhibition known to be related to hippocampal function (e.g., feature negative discrimination tasks). It has been argued that such high-fat high-sugar diets (HFS) impair the hippocampus, which then becomes less sensitive to modulation by physiological state. Thus retrieval of motivationally salient memories (e.g., when seeing or smelling food) occurs irrespective of state. Here we examine whether evidence of similar effects can be observed in humans using a correlational design. Healthy...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - September 4, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Attuquayefio, Tuki; Stevenson, Richard J.; Boakes, Robert A.; Oaten, Megan J.; Yeomans, Martin R.; Mahmut, Mehmet; Francis, Heather M. Source Type: research

Contextual control of chained instrumental behaviors.
Recent studies suggest a significant role for context in controlling the acquisition and extinction of simple operant responding. The present experiments examined the contextual control of a heterogeneous behavior chain. Rats first learned a chain in which a discriminative stimulus set the occasion for a procurement response (e.g., pulling a chain), which led to a second discriminative stimulus that occasion-set a consumption response (e.g., pressing a lever) that produced a food-pellet reinforcer. Experiment 1 showed that, after separate extinction of procurement and consumption, each response increased when it was return...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - September 4, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Thrailkill, Eric A.; Trott, Jeremy M.; Zerr, Christopher L.; Bouton, Mark E. Source Type: research

Chimpanzees can point to smaller amounts of food to accumulate larger amounts but they still fail the reverse-reward contingency task.
The reverse-reward contingency task presents 2 food sets to an animal, and they are required to choose the smaller of the 2 sets in order to receive the larger food set. Intriguingly, the majority of species tested on the reverse-reward task fail to learn this contingency in the absence of large trial counts, correction trials, and punishment techniques. The unique difficulty of this seemingly simple task likely reflects a failure of inhibitory control which is required to point toward a smaller and less desirable reward rather than a larger and more desirable reward. This failure by chimpanzees and other primates to pass ...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - September 4, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Beran, Michael J.; James, Brielle T.; Whitham, Will; Parrish, Audrey E. Source Type: research

Testing the boundaries of “paradoxical” predictions: Pigeons do disregard bad news.
Several studies have shown that, when offered a choice between an option followed by stimuli indicating whether or not reward is forthcoming and an option followed by noninformative stimuli, animals strongly prefer the former even when the latter is more profitable. Though this paradoxical preference appears to question the principles of optimal foraging theory, Vasconcelos, Monteiro, and Kacelnik (2015) proposed an optimality model that shows how such preference maximizes gains under certain conditions. In this paper, we tested the model ’s core assumption that a stimulus signaling the absence of food should not influen...
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes - September 4, 2016 Category: Zoology Authors: Fortes, In ês; Vasconcelos, Marco; Machado, Armando Source Type: research