Retention of a running response following appetitive acquisition, extinction, and discrimination

Abstract

In Experiment 1, hungry rats received 30 rewarded runway trials and then either extinction trials followed by retention tests or just retention tests. Different groups were tested after retention intervals of 1 min, 1, 3, or 24 h, or 30 days. Retention of extinction training was a nonmonotonic, cubic function of time for the early portion of the response chain, with good retention at 1 min and 3 h and little retention at 1 h, 24 h, or 30 days. In the latter portions of the response chain, retention of extinction decreased monotonically with time. Retention following reward-only training varied little in time, though slight losses occurred after 30 days. Experiments 2–3 differed from Experiment 1 in imposing nonchoice discrimination training (reward vs. nonreward) instead of extinction following 30 rewarded trials. After different time intervals (.017, .75, 1.25, 3, and 24 h in Experiment 1; and .017, 1, and 3 h in Experiment 2), retention tests revealed poorest discrimination at intermediate intervals in the initial portion of the response chain, i.e., a Kamin effect appeared. The deficit seemed the result of a loss of response suppression to the cue that signaled nonreward. In latter segments of the response chain, a Kamin effect tended not to appear. Implications for a number of observations and theoretical views are noted.