The Kamin blocking effect, incidental learning and psychoticism

Abstract

The Kamin blocking effect consists in impaired learning of an association between a conditioned stimulus (CS2) and an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) if CS2 is presented simultaneously with a different CS (CS1) already associated with the UCS. It is well established with animal but not human subjects. In the two experiments presented here, the effect was clearly demonstrated with UCS = a computer-presented yellow square, CS1 = a blue square and CS2 = a noise (Expt 1) or two smaller white squares (Expt 2). The Kamin effect has, by some theorists, been attributed to switching of attention away from CS2, which conveys only redundant information. If so, the size of the effect should co-vary with indices of selective attention commonly used with human subjects. As predicted, the blocking effect was found to be smaller in subjects who displayed a high degree of incidental learning in either of two tasks in which intentional vs. incidental learning corresponded to (1) words vs. word position, or (2) a target initial word letter vs. non-target initial letters. We report elsewhere that the blocking effect is absent in acute schizophrenics. In the present experiments, however, there was no systematic relation between any of four measures of psychoticism, or intelligence, and either the blocking effect or incidental learning.