Narrowing down the conditions for extinction of Pavlovian feature-positive discriminations in humans

Learn Behav. 2012 Dec;40(4):393-404. doi: 10.3758/s13420-011-0060-4.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to delineate the minimal conditions for extinction of Pavlovian modulation in humans. Previous experiments at our lab showed that, after X-- A+/A- acquisition training, X- trials did not extinguish differential X-- A+/A- responding, while X-- A- trials did. Additionally, X-- A- extinction training seemed only to extinguish differential X-- A+/A- responding, while leaving differential responding on a concurrently trained Y [Symbol: see text] B+/B- discrimination intact. It thus seemed that the X-- A+/A- discrimination can only be extinguished by X-- A- extinction trials. (Rescorla, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 12, 16-24, 1986), on the other hand, found that the minimal conditions for extinction were broader in pigeons: Namely, he found that an acquired X-- A+/A- discrimination could be extinguished by presenting the original feature X in combination with a different target (B) that was minimally trained as an exciter. We thus wanted to examine whether this was also the case in humans. We found that nonreinforced X-- B- presentations did not abolish discriminative X-- A/A responding when target B was a nonreinforced stimulus. Nonreinforced X-- B- trials did extinguish the X-- A+/A- discrimination when target B had previously been trained as a target for modulation (X-- B+/B- or Y [Symbol: see text] B+/B- training) or as a reinforced exciter (B+). Our results thusf parallel and extend those in nonhuman animals (Rescorla, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 12, 16-24, 1986).

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Association Learning / physiology
  • Conditioning, Classical / physiology*
  • Discrimination Learning / physiology*
  • Extinction, Psychological / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Reinforcement, Psychology
  • Transfer, Psychology / physiology*