The Opportunity to Compare Similar Stimuli Can Reduce the Effectiveness of Features They Hold in Common
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Perceptual learning Associative learning Flavor aversion Salience Associability
Date
2023Referencia bibliográfica
Sanchez, J., Gónzlaez, A., Hall, G & de Brugada, I. (2023) The Opportunity to Compare Similar Stimuli Can Reduce the Effectiveness of Features They Hold in Common. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000349
Sponsorship
CIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ FEDER “Una manera de hacer Europa” (PGC2018-095965-B-I00; PI: IB)Abstract
In three experiments, rats were given experience of flavored solutions AX and BX, where A and B represent
distinctive flavors and X a flavor common to both solutions. In one condition, AX and BX were presented on
the same trial separated by a 5-min interval (intermixed preexposure). In another condition, each daily trial
consisted of presentations of only AX or only BX (blocked preexposure). The properties acquired by stimulus
X were then tested. Experiment 1 showed that after intermixed preexposure X was less able to interfere
with a conditioned response established to a different flavor. Experiment 2 showed that X was less effective
at overshadowing when trained in compound with another flavor. Simple conditioning, with X as the conditioned
stimulus, was not sensitive to the form of preexposure (Experiment 3). These results indicate that
the opportunity to compare similar stimuli that is provided by presenting them in close succession can
change the properties of features they hold in common, making these features less effective when tested
in compound with other stimuli. A loss of effectiveness by such features would contribute to the perceptual
learning effect, the enhancement of subsequent discrimination, that is generated by prior exposure to closely
spaced similar stimuli.