Increasing previous but not concurrent extinction attenuates the "extinction makes acquisition context specific" effect in human predictive learning.

Four experiments in human predictive learning evaluated whether the extinction makes the acquisition context specific (EMACS) effect is attenuated when the increase in prediction error that extinction produces disappears. Participants had to evaluate the relationship between a given food (cue) that was ingested by an imaginary client of a given restaurant (context) and a potential gastric illness (outcome). The task was implemented using Gorilla online software. All participants received the relevant training in context A, and equivalent exposure to context B. Cue E was presented paired with the outcome in all groups. Cue E was then either extinguished (group E) or not extinguished (group NE), either previously or concurrently to training of the target cue (P). P was then tested in contexts A and B. When extinction was conducted concurrently, performance to P became context-dependent regardless of the number of extinction trials (12 or 24)-the EMACS effect. The EMACS effect disappeared when extinction was elongated to 24 trials, and conducted before acquisition of P. Implications of these results for attentional explanations of context processing are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Reversing the relationship between a nontarget cue and the outcome facilitates subsequent human predictive learning.

Two experiments were conducted to test the effect of experiencing associative interference on later learning. A predictive learning task was used in which human participants had to evaluate whether plants would grow or not (Outcome) after being watered with different fertilizers (Cues). Experiment 1 found that the increase in the prediction error produced by following a pre-exposed nontarget cue by the outcome, facilitated subsequent acquisition of the relationship between the pre-exposed target cue and the outcome. Experiment 2 compared whether learning about the target cue was differentially affected by experiencing two types of associative interference with the nontarget cue: Pairing the pre-exposed cue with the outcome and presenting the cue without outcome after being paired with it. The experience of associative interference with nontarget cues similarly facilitated subsequent learning about the target cue, regardless of the direction of the change in the nontarget cue-outcome relationship. It is suggested that the increase in prediction error produced by the experience of associative interference may lead to a general increase in attention that facilitates subsequent learning.

Concurrent evidence of extinction making acquisition context specific and ABA and ABC renewal effects in human predictive learning.

Two experiments evaluated whether the experience of extinction makes acquisition context specific (EMACS) while the extinction learning itself also becomes context dependent under ABA and ABC renewal designs in a human predictive learning situation. Two groups of participants received X-Outcome pairings in context A followed by P-Outcome pairings in context B. For participants in group E, cue X was then extinguished in context B while cue P was trained. Participants in group NE were trained with P, but they did not have the extinction experience. Testing target cues outside the context B (i.e. the context in which P was trained and X was extinguished) in group E led to an increase in responding to cue X (Renewal effect) and a decrease in responding to cue P (EMACS effect) regardless of whether the test was conducted in context A (Experiment 1) or in an alternative context C (Experiment 2). Combined results suggest that Renewal and EMACS effects may be based on the same underlying mechanism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The state of transfer of stimulus control after extinction in human instrumental conditioning: A key factor in therapy strategies based in nonhuman animal research.

Previous research has shown that instrumental training can encourage the formation of binary associations between the representations of the elements present at the time of learning, that is, between the discriminative stimulus and the instrumental response (the S-R association), between the stimulus and outcome (the S-O association), and between the response and outcome (the R-O association). Studies with rats have used transfer procedures to explore the effects of discriminative extinction (i.e., extinction that is carried out in the presence of the discriminative stimuli) on these three binary associations. Thus, a reduction in the response rate of the extinguished response (R) can be detected in situations involving a different discriminative stimulus that was associated with the same outcome, and to unextinguished responses controlled by the discriminative stimulus (S) and associated with the outcome (O). These transfer effects suggest that R-O and S-O associations remain active after extinction in nonhuman animals. We carried out an experiment to explore these postextinction transfer effects in humans using a within-subject design. Contrary to nonhuman reports, the S-O association was affected by discriminative extinction, suggesting differences in the associative structure of instrumental conditioning in human and nonhuman animals that should be considered by those therapeutic strategies based in nonhuman animal research aimed to reduce unhealthy instrumental behaviours in human beings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Reversal training facilitates acquisition of new learning in a Morris water maze.

Two experiments determined the effect of interference training on subsequent spatial learning in a Morris water maze. Rats first learned that a platform was located in a quadrant marked by landmarks A and B. Different groups of rats either continued or reversed that training. In the reversal condition the platform was opposite to the initially trained quadrant. On test, a new cue, C, was added and the platform was located in the new AC quadrant. Rats that had received the reversal training learned the location of the new platform faster than rats trained with the same platform throughout. In Experiment 2, phase 1 training was conducted by placing the rats on the platforms to ensure that they were located. Experimental rats received a reversal of the platform position in phase 2. A control group received training with both platforms present, and thus had experience with each. When the platform was then located in the new AC quadrant the rats that received reversal training learned the new location faster than those without reversal training. Results are discussed in terms of the effect of interference on the arousal of general attention.

Prior extinction increases acquisition context specificity in human predictive learning.

One experiment evaluated the effect of extinction on the context dependence of non-extinguished information in a situation in which physical (images), rather than predominantly verbal, contexts were used in human predictive learning. Participants received training in which different foods (Cues) were associated with the presence or the absence of gastric illness (outcome) in customers of different restaurants (contexts). One cue was associated with the gastric illness while a different cue was either extinguished or not between groups. A change in the context at test led to a general decrease in both predictive judgments and the speed of responding to the non-extinguished cue. However, these decreases were greater when training was conducted during extinction of the different cue demonstrating the extinction makes acquisition context-specific (EMACS) effect. Results are contrasted with failures to find the effect in other reports and discussed in terms of extinction leading to an allocation of attentional resources to the context, facilitating the context dependence of information.

Discrimination reversal facilitates subsequent acquisition of temporal discriminations in rats' appetitive conditioning.

Three experiments with rats assessed the effects of introducing predictive ambiguity by reversing a Pavlovianly trained discrimination on subsequent context and temporal conditioning. The experience of discrimination reversal did not facilitate context conditioning when the food was presented on a variable time schedule (Experiment 1a). However, in Experiment 1b, discrimination reversal enhanced subsequent learning of a fixed temporal interval associated with unsignaled food presentation in comparison with consistent training. In Experiment 2, temporal discrimination after reversal and consistent training was compared with a naïve control. The experience of discrimination facilitated subsequent temporal conditioning with respect to the naïve control, and discrimination reversal enhanced temporal conditioning even further. In Experiment 3, reversal enhanced learning of the fixed temporal interval, regardless of whether it was relatively short or long (i.e., 30 s or 60 s). Results are discussed in terms of current associative theories of human and nonhuman conditioning and attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Experiencing extinction with a non-target cue facilitates reversal of a target conditioned inhibitor in human predictive learning.

Three experiments tested the effect of experiencing extinction on learning about a differential conditioned inhibitor that was trained as an excitor. A human predictive learning task was used in which participants had to evaluate the probability of different colored fertilizers (Cues) leading plants to flourish or not (Outcome). Experiment 1 found that presenting the target cue without outcome while other cues were followed by the outcome made the target cue a conditioned inhibitor, passing both, retardation (Experiment 1a) and summation (Experiment 1b) tests of conditioned inhibition. Subsequent extinction of a different cue facilitated reversing the relationship between the conditioned inhibitor and the outcome regardless of whether the situation could be solved by using simple rules (Experiment 2) or not (Experiment 3). Results are discussed in terms of attentional theories that suggest extinction produces a nonspecific increase in attention that facilitates learning.

Context dependency as a function of prediction error-based attention

Context dependence of information has been shown to be based, at least in part, on the attention contexts received at the time of training. Recent research suggests that attention to irrelevant contexts may be a byproduct of the activation of a general exploratory attentional mechanism prompted by high prediction errors associated with situations of uncertainty. Alternatively, low prediction errors may engage an attentional mechanism of exploitation in situations in which contexts play a relevant role. A selective review discusses the potential of this approach to explain context switch effects from an attentional perspective

Se ha demostrado que la dependencia contextual de la información depende esencialmente de la atención que reciben los contextos en el momento del entrenamiento. La investigación reciente sugiere que la atención a contextos irrelevantes podría ser un efecto secundario de la activación de el mecanismo exploratorio general de la atención promovido por errores de predicción altos asociados a situaciones de incertidumbre. Alternativamente, errores de predicción bajos podrían activar el mecanismo atencional de explotación en aquellas situaciones en las que el contexto juega un papel relevante dentro de la situación de aprendizaje. Se realiza una revisión selectiva en la que se discute el potencial de esta aproximación para explicar los efectos de cambio de contexto desde una perspectiva atencional

Attentional instructions modulate differential context-switch effects after short and long training in human predictive learning.

Three experiments in human predictive learning assessed the modulating role of instructions on context-switch effects on performance after different levels of training. Cue X (a food name) was paired with an outcome (gastric malaise) in Context A (a specific restaurant), whereas another cue, Y, was presented in the absence of outcome in Context B. The series manipulated the testing context (same or different from the acquisition context), the length of training (short vs. long), and the instructions participants received before testing (attentional or neutral). Attentional instructions intended to either focusing participants' attention on the context (Experiments 1 and 2) or to take attention away from the context (Experiment 3). In agreement with the predictions of the attentional theory of context processing, instructions that focused participants' attention on the context made retrieval of information after long training context specific, something that did not occur in the absence of attentional instructions. Conversely, instructions that took participants' attention away from the context (by focusing their attention on the cue) attenuated context-switch effects that otherwise appear after short training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Extinction makes acquisition context-specific in conditioned taste aversion regardless of the context where acquisition and testing take place.

Retrieval of a flavor-illness association has been found to show contextual dependence when the association is learned after a nontarget flavor-illness association has been extinguished in what has been named as the extinction makes acquisition context-specific (EMACS) effect. Four experiments were designed to further explore the EMACS effect in conditioned taste aversion. Experiments 1 and 2 replicated the EMACS effect using rats that did not experience extinction, and rats that underwent extinction of a different flavor as controls. Experiments 3 and 4 found that the experience of extinction with the nontarget Flavor X in a given context (A) led to context-specificity of performance to the target Flavor Y both, when Y was trained in a highly familiar context (B) and tested in the context where X had been trained (Context A, Experiment 3), and when the test was conducted in a less familiar context (C) where no cues or outcomes were presented before (Experiment 4). These results are consistent with the idea that the experience of extinction encourages organism's attention to the contexts, making retrieval of new learning context-specific. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Discrimination reversal facilitates contextual conditioning in rats' appetitive conditioning / La inversión de la discriminación facilita el condicionamiento contextual en una preparación de condicionamiento apetitivo con ratas

Two experiments were conducted with the goal of exploring the effect of experiencing associative interference upon concurrent learning about conditioned stimuli and contexts in rats’ appetitive conditioning. During the first training phase, two groups of rats received a conditioned stimulus (CS1) followed by food, whereas another conditioned stimulus (CS2) was presented alone. During a second training phase, discrimination was reversed in group R, while it remained the same in group D. A new conditioned stimulus (CS3) was concurrently trained followed by food during this second Phase (Experiment 1). Reversal discrimination did not facilitate concurrent conditioning of the new stimulus, but there was a trend towards facilitation of contextual conditioning, measured by magazine entries in the absence of stimuli, that was confirmed in Experiment 2. These results suggest that the interference treatment may facilitate context conditioning under circumstances and with boundaries that are yet to be established

Se realizaron dos experimentos con el objetivo de explorar el efecto de experimentar una interferencia asociativa sobre el aprendizaje concurrente acerca de estímulos condicionados y contextos en condicionamiento apetitivo con ratas. Durante la primera fase de entrenamiento, dos grupos de ratas recibieron un estímulo condicionado (CS1) seguido de comida, mientras otro (CS2) se presentaba solo. Durante la segunda fase de entrenamiento, la discriminación se invirtió en el grupo R, mientras se mantuvo constante en el grupo D. Durante esta segunda fase, un estímulo condicionado nuevo (CS3) fue presentado seguido de comida (Experimento 1). La inversión de la discriminación no facilitó el aprendizaje concurrente acerca del nuevo estímulo, pero sí hubo una tendencia hacia la facilitación del condicionamiento contextual, medido a partir de la respuesta de entrada en el comedero en ausencia de estimulación, que se confirmó en el Experimento 2. Estos resultados sugieren que los tratamientos de interferencia pueden facilitar el condicionamiento contextual en circunstancias y con limitaciones que están aún por determinarse

Testing a cue outside the training context increases attention to the contexts and impairs performance in human predictive learning.

One experiment in human predictive learning explored the impact of a context change on attention to contexts and predictive ratings controlled by the cue. In Context A: cue X was paired with an outcome four times, while cue Y was presented without an outcome four times in Context B:. In both contexts filler cues were presented without the outcome. During the test, target cues X and Y were presented either in the context where they were trained, or in the alternative context. With the context change expectation of the outcome X, expressed as predictive ratings, decreased in the presence of X and increased in the presence of Y. Looking at the contexts, expressed as a percentage of the overall gaze dwell time on a trial, was high across the four training trials, and increased with the context change. Results suggest that the presentation of unexpected information leads to increases in attention to contextual cues. Implications for contextual control of behavior are discussed.

Of rats and people: a select comparative analysis of cue competition, the contents of learning, and retrieval

Select literature regarding cue competition, the contents of learning, and retrieval processes is summarized to demonstrate parallels and differences between human and nonhuman associative learning. Competition phenomena such as blocking, overshadowing, and relative predictive validity are largely analogous in animal and human learning. In general, strong parallels are found in the associative structures established during learning, as well as in the basic phenomena associated with information retrieval. Some differences arise too, such as retrospective evaluation, which seems easier to observe in human than in nonhuman animals. However, the parallels are sufficient to indicate that the study of learning in animals continues to be relevant to human learning and memory (AU)

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Attentional perspectives on context-dependence of information retrieval

Attention has been traditionally understood as an important factor on acquiring new information. A review of the literature suggests that attention, specifically attention to the contexts, also plays a relevant role on information retrieval. It also shows that attention to the contexts is modulated by the ambiguity of the situation, and the informative value contexts have. The virtues and limitations of different attentional theories of learning applied to the explanation of the effects of context change on retrieval of the information are discussed. This analysis uncovers the weaknesses of current research on context processing that should be corrected by future research: The need of independent measures of attention to the contexts, the evaluation of the mechanisms of contextual control, and the possibility of taking an evolutionary perspective on the effects of context change (AU)

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Roles of context in acquisition of human instrumental learning: Implications for the understanding of the mechanisms underlying context-switch effects.

Four experiments in human instrumental learning explored the associations involving the context that develop after three trials of training on simple discriminations. Experiments 1 and 4 found a deleterious effect of switching the learning context that cannot be explained by the context-outcome binary associations commonly used to explain context-switch effects after short training in human predictive learning and in animal Pavlovian conditioning. Evidence for context-outcome (Experiment 2), context-discriminative stimulus (Experiment 3), and context-instrumental response (Experiment 4) binary associations was found within the same training paradigm, suggesting that contexts became associated with all the elements of the situation, regardless of whether those associations played a role in a specific context-switch effect detected on performance.

Attention to irrelevant contexts decreases as training increases: Evidence from eye-fixations in a human predictive learning task.

Participants were trained in a human predictive learning task in which they had to predict whether the ingestion of a given food (cue) by the imaginary customer of an imaginary restaurant (context) was followed by gastric malaise (outcome). One food was always followed by gastric malaise in one of the contexts, while other foods were not followed by gastric malaise in the same, or in an alternative context. Predictive responses and eye-fixations were recorded throughout the 48 training trials with each cue involved in the task. In agreement with the predictions of the Attentional Theory of Context Processing, attention to the contexts measured through eye-fixations decreased while attention to the cues increased as training progressed. The results of this study give support to the idea that contexts are actively processed at the beginning of acquisition, and that this processing decreases as training increases.

Experimental approach to the study of beauty: the role of golden proportion / Aproximación experimental al estudio de la belleza: el papel de la proporción áurea

Two experiments evaluated the impact of different deviations from golden proportion on subjective perception of beauty. Black and white adaptations of Mondrian paintings modified to fit golden, 1/6 and 1/2 proportions were used as stimuli. Within each trial, participants were exposed to two versions of the same painting on a computer screen. Participants were given 1500 ms to select the one they considered more beautiful. In experimental trials one of the paintings presented the golden proportion while the other presented either the 1/2 or the1/6 proportion. The two paintings were identical in control trials. University students without formal training in art showed preference for golden ratio stimuli over 1/6 stimuli, but not over 1/2 stimuli, both, when they were tested in within-subject (Experiment 1) and betweensubject (Experiment 2) designs (AU)

En dos experimentos se evaluó el impacto de distintas desviaciones de la proporción áurea sobre la percepción de la belleza. Como estímulos se utilizaron adaptaciones en blanco y negro de pinturas de Mondrian ajustadas a la proporciones áurea, 1/6 y 1/2. En cada ensayo se presentaron a los participantes dos versiones del mismo estímulo. Los participantes dispusieron de 1500 ms para seleccionar el estímulo que consideraban más bello. En los ensayos experimentales una de las pinturas mantuvo la proporción áurea, mientras que la otra se ajustó a la proporción 1/2 ó 1/6. En los ensayos de control las proporciones de los estímulos fueron idénticas. Los participantes, estudiantes universitarios sin formación en arte, seleccionaron como más bellos los estímulos con proporción áurea en comparación con la proporción 1/6, pero no en comparación con la proporción 1/2. Estos resultados fueron consistentes tanto con un diseño intrasujeto (Experimento 1) como en un diseño entregrupos (Experimento 2) (AU)

Context specificity of taste aversion is boosted by pre-exposure and conditioning with a different taste.

Recent reports in the literature show that an extinction treatment makes subsequently learned information context-specific. An experiment in conditioned taste aversion evaluated whether pre-exposure and conditioning with a given flavor would make conditioning of a different flavor context specific as well. Rats received conditioning with taste Y in context A, before being tested in extinction either in context A or in a different but equally familiar context (context B). Half of the animals received a pre-exposure and conditioning treatment with a different flavor (X), while the other half only received conditioning. The context change at testing led to higher consumption of Y in the animals that had received previous pre-exposure and conditioning with X. The implications of these results for the mechanisms underlying context-switch effects are discussed.

Context specificity of extinguished schedule-induced drinking within an ABA renewal design in rats / Especificidad contextual de la extinción de la bebida inducida por programa en un diseño de renovación ABA en ratas

The main goal of this study was to explore whether extinction of schedule-induced adjunctive drinking (polydipsia) may become under contextual control. Drinking was induced by a Fixed-Time 30 sec food delivery schedule (FT30). Experiment 1 used a 2 x 2 factorial design with Schedule (FT30 vs. food a the start of the session), and Stimulus (Presenceor absence of a 10 sec tone at the end of each 30 sec period within a session) as factors. Acquisition and extinction were conducted in two different contexts, returning to the acquisition context at testing. Experiment 2 tested contextual control of extinction against a control that remained in the extinction context at testing. Recovery from extinction was observed as an increase in water intake (as well as in magazine entries) during the test, regardless of the presence of the tone. Implications for theunderstanding of schedule-induced drinking as a conditioned response are discusse (AU)

El objetivo principal de este estudio fue evaluar si la extinción de la bebida adjuntiva inducida por programa (polidipsia) podía quedar bajo control contextual. La bebida se indujo mediante un programa de administración de comida de tiempo fijo 30 segundos (TF30). El experimento 1 utilizó un diseño factorial 2 x 2 con Programa (TF30 vs. comida al inicio de la sesión) y Estímulo (presencia o ausencia de un sonido de 10s al final de cada periodo de 30s dentro de la sesión)como factores. La adquisición y la extinción se realizaron en contextos diferentes, regresando al contexto de adquisición durante la prueba. El experimento 2 introdujo una condición de control que recibió la prueba en el contexto de extinción. La recuperación de la extinción se observó como un aumento en la ingesta de agua (así como en las entradas en el comedero) durante la prueba, independientemente de la presencia del sonido. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados para la interpretación de la bebida inducida por programa como una respuesta condicionada (AU)