Attenuation in autoshaped responding produced by US reactivation treatment following extinction

Abstract

Two experiments examined the effects of US priming/reinstatement treatments on pigeons’ responding to a partially extinguished CS. In Experiment 1, the subjects were given autoshaping to a keylight paired with food, and then responding to the keylight was partially extinguished. The subjects were subsequently given four presentations of food, that is, US priming/reinstatement treatment, approximately 30 min prior to testing with the CS. In contrast to previous reports that have demonstrated a reinstatement-induced facilitation of performance in rats, the present results yielded an attenuation in conditioned responding following the US reinstatement treatment relative to responding by a control group that did not receive the reinstatement presentations. In Experiment 2 we sought to distinguish between a priming account and some of the alternative interpretations of the results of Experiment 1. The subjects were given autoshaping with two separately trained keylights, and then responding to the target CS was partially extinguished. Consistent with a priming interpretation of the previous finding, nonreinforced presentations of the nonextinguished keylight approximately 30 min prior to testing with the extinguished CS attenuated conditioned responding.