ERIC Number: EJ869802
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Nov
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0023-9690
EISSN: N/A
Constraints on Enhanced Extinction Resulting from Extinction Treatment in the Presence of an Added Excitor
Urcelay, Gonzalo P.; Lipatova, Olga; Miller, Ralph R.
Learning and Motivation, v40 n4 p343-363 Nov 2009
Three Pavlovian fear conditioning experiments with rats as subjects explored the effect of extinction in the presence of a concurrent excitor. Our aim was to explore this particular treatment, documented in previous studies to deepen extinction, with novel control groups to shed light on the processes involved in extinction. Relative to subjects extinguished on the target CS alone, Experiments 1 and 2 found across a range of parameters that any appreciable effect of facilitated extinction due to the concurrent excitor was submerged by generalization decrement going from extinction to testing. In Experiment 3 we used different durations for the target and concurrent stimuli in order to discourage configuring and an ABC renewal design to increase sensitivity, and observed diminished renewal resulting from extinction in the presence of a second excitor. Our findings suggest that there are distinct limits to the observation of enhanced extinction in the presence of an excitor and identifies some of the sources of these limitations. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)
Descriptors: Control Groups, Classical Conditioning, Animals, Experiments, Fear, Stimuli, Learning Processes, Animal Behavior
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A