Omission training and positive conditioned suppression in the rat

Suppression of operant responding during a conditioned stimulus (CS) was studied in two procedures. In both procedures, operant leverpressing was maintained by a variable-interval 1-min food-delivery schedule, and insertion of a second lever served as the CS. In the first procedure, autoshaping, food followed each CS presentation irrespective of a subject’s behavior during the CS. In the second procedure, omission training, contact with the CS canceled the delivery of food scheduled for the end of that CS. In the first experiment, subjects were exposed to omission training followed by autoshaping; these procedures were reversed in the second experiment. In each experiment, the omission contingency resulted in fewer CS contacts and less suppression of operant responding during the CS than did autoshaping. These differences were more notable in subjects receiving the sequence autoshaping→omission training (Experiment 2). Direct observations in Experiment 2 revealed that, for subjects that were contacting the CS frequently when the omission contingency was introduced, reductions in signal contacts were accompanied by redistributions of behavior. The form of these redistributions depended upon behavior allocation at the time the omission contingency was imposed.     

A feature positive effect in conditioned suppression

A conditioned suppression experiment with rats studied the development of two discriminations involving two conditioned stimuli, A and X. In one discrimination (AX+/A?), compound presentations of A and X signaled shock and presentations of A alone signaled no-shock. In the other discrimination (A+/AX?), A alone signaled shock and AX signaled no-shock. AX+/A? discriminations were learned more rapidly than their A+/AX? counterparts. These results, which resemble the feature-positive effect of Jenkins and Sainsbury (1969, 1970), are discussed in terms of Rescorla and Wagner’s (1972) theory of conditioning and also in terms of stimulus intensity mechanisms.     

Effects of the correlation between a positive and negative US on conditioned suppression in rats

For three groups of rats, an auditory CS, presented while the animals were responding on a variable-interval schedule for food reinforcement, was terminated on half of the trials with a noncontingent footshock. For two groups, half of the trials were also followed after 5 sec by the delivery of free food. In the positively correlated condition (PC) the free food was presented on shocked trials and in the negatively correlated condition (NC) on the nonshocked trials, while the remaining group (S) never received free food. In a fourth group the shock was omitted and free food delivered on half of the trials. Although all shocked groups showed a significant suppression, the magnitude was greater for Group PC than for Groups NC and S, which did not differ. Suppression did not result from the pairing of the CS with food alone. These results do not support the counterconditioning hypothesis that the pairing of a normally noxious stimulus with food reduces its aversiveness.     

Differential conditioned suppression in the Konorski-Lawicka paradigm

In conditioned suppression discriminations, the Konorski-Lawicka paradigm involves A+ trials, where conditioned stimulus A is followed by shock, and sh → A? trials, where A is preceded by shock Rats easily mastered this A+/sh → A? discrimination, as indicated by suppression of food-reinforced barpressing on A+ trials and acceleration of barpressing on sh → A? trials. A history of A+ conditioning resulted in nearly perfect discrimination performance on the very first day of A+/sh → A ? training, but a history of sh→ A? conditioning retarded development of the discrimination. The basis for the development of the discrimination was discussed in terms of an inferred stimulus (sh′) arising from the aftereffects of shock.     

Context sensitivity of conditioned suppression following preexposure to the conditioned stimulus

Conditioned suppression in rats is often unaffected when the context (or set of background stimuli) is changed following conditioning. This suggests that responding to the conditioned stimulus (CS) can be relatively insensitive to the context in which the CS is presented. In two experiments, we examined whether sensitivity to contextual stimuli is affected by preexposure to the CS. In Experiment 1, when the CS was novel at the outset of conditioning, conditioned suppression was not affected when the context was changed following conditioning. However, when the CS had been preexposed, responding was weaker when extinction occurred outside of the conditioning context. In Experiment 2, responding was again sensitive to the test context, regardless of whether preexposure occurred in the conditioning context or in an alternate context. These results suggest that the extent to which responding is sensitive to context can depend on the conditioning history of the CS.     

Procedure and reliability of conditioned respiratory suppression

Changes in respiration amplitude, respiration rate, and heart rate in response to a conditioned signal for shock were measured concurrently in kittens and adult cats. The data were analyzed with respect to qualitative and quantitative variability across trials and subjects; correlation among measures; skewness; and kurtosis. Suppression of respiration amplitude was the most reliable response across trials and subjects, with increases in respiration rate second and heart rate by far the least reliable. Correlations between each pair of measures were moderate. Respiration-amplitude responses were negatively skewed, but this deviation from normality was moderate and consistent across subjects. The measurement of conditioned respiratory suppression is a viable addition or alternative to the conditioned emotional response procedure in studies of classically conditioned fear.     

Transfer of conditioned suppression and conditioned acceleration from instrumental to consummatory baselines

Following training on a variable-interval food reinforcement schedule, rats were exposed to Pavlovian procedures which produced reliable conditioned suppression and conditioned acceleration of the leverpressing (instrumental) baseline. When free food was simultaneously made available in the test cage, all subjects spent the majority of each session “freeloading,” that is, eating food from a dish rather than leverpressing for it. When superimposed upon the freeloading baseline, the conditioned suppression and conditioned acceleration procedures affected the rate of pellet consumption identically in magnitude and direction to their previous effects on leverpressing. These results suggest a motivational mechanism for conditioned suppression and acceleration, rather than one which depends upon spurious punishment of specific response sequences.     

The response-shock interval and conditioned suppression of avoidance in rats

Rats were trained to avoid unsignaled shocks with response-shock intervals of 30, 60, or 120 sec. When CSs of 60 sec duration paired with unavoidable shocks were then superimposed upon the avoidance baseline, responding decreased during the CS. Reductions in responding resulted in extra shocks which were potentially avoidable in all response-shock interval conditions, with the greatest increase in shocks in the response-shock 30-sec condition. Decreases in responding were greater when the CS was paired with a 2.0-mA unavoidable shock than with a 1.0-mA shock.     

Forgetting of a CS attribute in a conditioned suppression paradigm

Although a number of studies have demonstrated nearly complete retention of fear in a conditioned suppression task, they provide little information about the nature of the memory for the CS. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the retention of an attribute of a tonal CS that had been paired with shock and was thus capable of eliciting a conditioned emotional response (CER) in rats. The Kamin blocking effect was utilized to detect changes in the memory of CS attributes. Either 1 or 21 days following conditioning to a tone, separate groups of rats received compound conditioning in which either the original or a novel tone was combined with a light. Subsequent measurement of suppression to the added element (light) indicated that only the original CS produced blocking at the short delay, but that both original and novel tones resulted in blocking at the 21-day interval. This increase in the extent of blocking suggests that memory for specific attributes of the CS does diminish as a function of time.     

The role of number and spacing of CS-US pairings in conditioned suppression

In four studies, with rats as Ss. acquisition and. where appropriate, extinction trials were presented against a baseline of ongoing licking. At shock intensities of 0.1. 0.5. 1.0, or 2.0 mA, acquisition performance was a function of number of CS-US pairings: spacing of trials (one or two per day) did not affect acquisition performance. Resistance to extinction could be predicted from terminal acquisition performance and reached a maximum after three CS-US pairings.     

The effects of separate presentations of the US on conditioned suppression

Four experiments examined the effects of separate presentations of shock on conditioned suppression of instrumental responding evoked by a CS previously paired with shock. Experiment 1 showed that conditioned suppression of responding resulting from noise-shock pairings increased as a function of time after the initial noise-shock pairings. However, it also showed that this time-dependent increase in conditioned suppression of responding could be attenuated by presentations of light-shock pairings immediately prior to the test of the noise CS. Experiment 2 showed that this attenuation effect can be produced by presentations of either light-shock pairings or shock alone. Experiment 3 showed that the magnitude of this attenuation effect was directly related to the temporal proximity of the light-shock pairings to the test of the noise CS. Experiment 4 showed that the magnitude of this attenuation effect was inversely related to the intensity of separate shock presentations.     

Microstructural analysis of conditioned and unconditioned responses to maltodextrin

The microstructure of licking responses was analyzed to investigate the interaction between unconditioned responses to maltodextrin and the responses to flavor cues previously associated with maltodextrin. Experiment 1 demonstrated that although the consumption of maltodextrin peaked at intermediate concentrations, the mean lick cluster size showed a positive, monotonic increase with concentration. In Experiment 2, a (conditioned stimulus) CS+ flavor was paired with 16% maltodextrin, whereas a CS- flavor was paired with 2% maltodextrin. During test, consumption of the CS+ was higher than that of the CS- when the flavors were combined with 2% maltodextrin, but not when combined with 16% maltodextrin. In contrast, cluster size was larger with the CS+ than with the CS-, regardless of the concentration of maltodextrin present on test. Previous analyses of licking microstructure indicate that cluster size reflects the palatability of the ingested solution. Thus, the present results indicate that flavor conditioning can change the palatability of the cue flavors. Adding the CS+ flavor to maltodextrin produced results analogous to increasing the concentration of maltodextrin (in terms of both consumption and licking microstructure measures), which is consistent with the idea that after conditioning, responses to the CS+ flavor and to the unconditioned stimulus are mediated via the same representation.     

Stepwise reductions in US density and intensity: Maintenance and extinction of conditioned suppression

Information was sought on how the strength of fear, acquired and extinguished in a classical conditioning paradigm, might be affected by certain of the circumstances that normally are associated with the course of avoidance learning. Following preconditioning exposures to the conditioned stimulus, one group of rats (Group PRF) was given continuous conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) acquisition trials followed by stepwise reductions in US probability (given the CS) over three phases to about 11% for the final phase. Another group, Group US(lo), was given continuous CS-US pairings throughout, but, following acquisition, received stepwise reductions in US intensity (to permit evaluation of a progressively changing feature of the US over a wide range without having to employ excessive shock) over the same phases. A third group, Group US(hi), received unchanging (from acquisition) CS-US pairings over these phases, and an explicitly unpaired control group (Group RU) was included. Although outcomes differed somewhat depending upon whether suppression ratios or absolute measures of responding were considered, the major findings were that suppression to the CS was complete by the end of acquisition and persisted thereafter throughout the three phases for all but control subjects. In contrast to Group US(lo), which showed relatively little resistance to extinction of suppression to subsequent CS-only exposures, Groups US(hi) and PRF displayed marked resistance over two separate, extended sets of extinction sessions. Suppression to context cues was pronounced only for Groups US(hi) and RU, and varied as a function of US parameters and not whether the shocks were or were not signaled. Theoretical reconciliation of these findings was most difficult for Groun PRF.     

Posttrial effects of presenting vs. omitting expected shock USs in the conditioned suppression procedure: Concurrent measurement of barpress suppression and freezing

Barpress suppression in a 1-min interval following CS trials was investigated using 16 rats in a conditioned suppression procedure with a two-stage design. For one group, each CS co-terminated with a brief shock US in Stage 1; then, in Stage 2, only half the CSs ended with a shock, which in turn was followed 1 min later by a second shock. For a second group, the two stages were reversed. When CSs were followed by single shocks in Stage 1, posttrial suppression weakened across trials; but when, in Stage 2, double shocks followed half the CSs, posttrial suppression grew stronger. When half the trials were followed by double shocks in Stage 1, posttrial suppression was maintained at initial levels but weakened in Stage 2 when single shocks followed each trial. In both stages, posttrial suppression was stronger on nonreinforced than on reinforced trials. Two factors were hypothesized to control posttrial suppression. First, posttrial suppression weakens with training under the single-shock procedure because post-shock temporal stimuli come to inhibit fear unless themselves paired with shock. Second, posttrial suppression is stronger on nonreinforced trials than on reinforced trials because freezing behaviors initiated during the CS are not disrupted by a US and so persist into the posttrial interval.     

One-trial simultaneous and backward fear conditioning as reflected in conditioned suppression of licking in rats

In three experiments, groups of albino rats received one strictly simultaneous pairing of a 4-sec auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) and a 4-sec 1-mA shock unconditioned stimulus (US). Other groups received a backward pairing, in which the US began before the CS, or a forward pairing, in which the CS began before the US. Control groups received only the US or received both the CS and the US but widely separated in time. Later, the CS was presented while the rats licked a drinking tube for water, and CS-elicited suppression of licking was taken as an index of the Pavlovian conditioned response (CR). It was found that groups receiving a single forward or a single simultaneous pairing suppressed more than groups that had received a backward pairing; and the backward groups, in turn, suppressed more than the control groups. It appears, then, that excitatory fear conditioning, as reflected in conditioned suppression of licking in rats, can be produced in a single trial by both backward and simultaneous conditioning procedures.     

Some orderly nonmonotonicities in the trial-by-trial acquisition of conditioned suppression: Inhibition with reinforcement?

The trial-by-trial acquisition of conditioned suppression was examined under a wide range of conditions. Frequently, the acquisition functions were nonmonotonic. In conditions containing four or more trials in sessions of 2 h or less, suppression, once established, tended to be significantly stronger on the first trial of a session than on one or more subsequent trials. The data from six conditions are presented to exemplify those under which nonmonotonicities did and did not occur. It is suggested that the nonmonotonicities are similar to effects described by Pavlov (1960, Lecture 14), effects which he believed reflected the growth of inhibition despite continuous reinforcement. Interpretations of the results in terms of reactive inhibition, short-term habituation, conditioned inhibition, inhibition of delay, and disinhibition are discussed.     

Decrement in distress to an aversive event during a conditioned positive opponent-process

During Phase 1, 24 rats received CS₁ (light)-shock trials while the remaining 24 rats received CS₁ and shock on a random control schedule. During Phase 2, all subjects were presented trials of CS₂ (tone)-shock. When CS₂ was subsequently presented immediately after CS, while subjects licked for water, it was found that subjects that had received CS₁-shock pairings during Phase 1 exhibited less suppression of licking to CS₂, indicating less distress, than control subjects. The results are compatible with the opponent-process theory and suggest the presence of a positive hedonic afterreaction to an aversive event which reduced distress to a following aversive event.     

Apparent hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic conditioned responses with exogenous insulin as the unconditioned stimulus

Rats were injected with either insulin or saline and placed in one of two distinctive environments for 25 min on each of several days. On test trials for conditioning, the animals were injected with saline in both environments and blood glucose levels were measured. Apparent conditioned changes were obtained, but the direction of the conditioned response depended upon the environment in which the animals were placed. A conditioned hyperglycemic response occurred in one environment, and a conditioned hypoglycemic response occurred in the other environment. This pattern occurred in both within-subject and between-subjects designs and was not influenced by route of insulin injection (ip or sc). The hypoglycemic, but not the hyperglycemic, response was blocked by methyl atropine. The occurrence of both CR patterns with the same low insulin dose is contrary to previous speculation that the different CR patterns are due to different dose levels of insulin.