Biological significance and posttraining changes in conditioned responding

• Published in: Learning and motivation Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 303 - 324
• Main Authors: Savastano, Hernan I, Miller, Ralph R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Elsevier Limited 01.08.2003
• Subjects: Associative Learning; Biology; Learning; Stimuli
• ISSN: 0023-9690; 1095-9122
• DOI: 10.1016/S0023-9690(03)00012-2

Increases in conditioned responding to a target stimulus achieved through posttraining extinction of a former companion stimulus (deflation) have proven moderately easy to obtain. In contrast, reductions in responding to a target as a result of posttraining pairings of its companion with the outcome (inflation) have proven more elusive. It has been suggested that stimuli with high biological significance (i.e., high response potential) are partially protected against inflation-mediated reductions in responding. Three conditioned suppression studies with rats systematically compared the consequences of posttraining inflation and deflation of companion stimuli. Experiment 1 replicated the previously observed asymmetries. Experiment 2 showed that inflation and deflation effects are symmetrical when target stimuli are of relatively low biological significance during training. Experiment 3 suggested that a biologically significant stimulus is also protected against reductions in its potential to act as an effective comparator stimulus. These findings challenge many contemporary theories of associative learning, particularly those designed to account for retrospective revaluation.