Behavioural processes
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Behavioural processes · Apr 2017
ReviewReinstatement after human feature-positive discrimination learning.
In two experiments, using an online conditioned suppression task, we investigated the possibility of reinstatement of extinguished feature-target compound presentations after sequential feature-positive discrimination training in humans. Furthermore, given a hierarchical account of Pavlovian modulation (e.g., Bonardi, 1998; Bonardi and Jennings, 2009), we predicted A-US reinstatement to be stronger than US-only reinstatement. In Experiment 1, participants learned a sequential feature-positive discrimination (X→A+|A-), which was subsequently extinguished (X→A-). ⋯ Subsequently, group A-US received reinforced presentations of A during a reinstatement phase while group Control received exposure to the context. Final testing of the novel X→B compound was hypothesized to show higher responding in group A-US than in group Control, but findings of this approach were limited due to acquired equivalence and/or perceptual factors causing a secondary extinction effect. We conclude to have obtained clear evidence in favour of reinstatement of differential responding after human Feature-Positive discrimination training and subsequent compound extinction, but no evidence in favour of A-US presentations being a stronger trigger for reinstatement than are US-only presentations.