Abstract
Three experiments investigated mediated configural learning in male rats. In Experiment 1, after exposure to audio-visual compounds AX and BY, rats received trials where X was paired with shock, and Y was not. The idea that conditioning with X enables the evoked configural representation of AX to be linked to shock received support from the facts that while AX provoked more fear than BX, there was no difference between BY and AY. Similarly, Experiment 2 showed that after exposure to AX and BY, separate pairings of X and Y with shock resulted in more fear to AX and BY than AY and BX. In Experiment 3, rats in group consistent received separate exposures to A and X in Context C, and B and Y in D, while those in group inconsistent received A and X (and B and Y) in both C and D. After rats had received shocks in both C and D, rats in group consistent showed more fear to AX and BY than to BX and AY, but this was not the case in group inconsistent. These results indicate that configural representations, formed either by presenting auditory and visual stimuli as parts of a compound or in a shared context, are subject to a process of mediated learning.
Highlights
Three experiments investigated mediated configural learning in male rats
Rats given trials on which a tone is first paired with the delivery of food pellets and is paired with illness induced by lithium chloride, show an aversion to food pellets in spite of the fact that food pellets have never been directly paired with illness (e.g., Holland, 1981)
The results do not require that mediated configural learning played a role: The tested configurations might have provoked fear to the extent that they activated the memory of the tone at test rather than because of their similarity to the configural representations that had become linked to shock during fear conditioning with the tone
Summary
Three experiments investigated mediated configural learning in male rats. In Experiment 1, after exposure to audio-visual compounds AX and BY, rats received trials where X was paired with shock, and Y was not. When rats receive test trials with AX and BX, they are less inclined to consume AX than BX (see Rescorla & Freberg, 1978; Ward-Robinson, Coutureau, Honey, & Killcross, 2005; see Ward-Robinson & Hall, 1996) This finding is inconsistent with the analysis based on an associative chain because the presence of X should mean that both compounds, AX and BX, can directly evoke the memory of lithium chloride. The fact that AX provokes more conditioned responding than BX suggests that conditioning trials with X had resulted in the evoked memory of AX becoming associated with the memory of illness generated by lithium chloride The import of the latter observations is rendered moot to the extent that it relies, at least in part, on the absence of a statistical
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