CSs and USs: what's the difference?

Abstract

Differences in processing representations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (CSs and USs) may result from either their temporal order in training (i.e., CSs precede USs) or the greater biological significance of USs. The CS- and US-preexposure effects were used to probe this question. These effects are similar except that context extinction between preexposure and training more readily attenuates the US- than the CS-preexposure effect. In Experiments 1, 2, and 5, context extinction following preexposure to the stimulus that later served as Event 1 in Event 1-->Event 2 pairings alleviated the response deficit due to Event 1 preexposure if Event 1 was biologically significant. In Experiments 3 and 4, context extinction alleviated the response deficit due to Event 2 preexposure if Event 2 was biologically significant. Thus, biological significance and not temporal order determines how a representation will be processed.