Conditioned inhibition and reinforcement rate.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Harris JA; School of Psychology.; Kwok DW; School of Psychology.; Andrew BJ; School of Psychology.
- Source
- Publisher: American Psychological Association Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101632727 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2329-8464 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 23298456 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn Subsets: MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
We investigated conditioned inhibition in a magazine approach paradigm. Rats were trained on a feature negative discrimination between an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) reinforced at one rate versus a compound of that CS and a visual stimulus (L) reinforced at a lower rate. This training established L as a conditioned inhibitor. We then tested the inhibitory strength of L by presenting it in compound with other auditory CSs. L reduced responding when tested with a CS that had been reinforced at a high rate, but had less or even no inhibitory effect when tested with a CS that had been reinforced at a low rate. The inhibitory strength of L was greater if it signaled a decrease in reinforcement from an already low rate than if it signaled an equivalent decrease in reinforcement from a high rate. We conclude that the strength of inhibition is not a linear function of the change in reinforcement that it signals. We discuss the implications of this finding for models of learning (e.g., Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) that identify inhibition with a difference (subtraction) rule.