Occasion Setting Research Articles

Acts of Narrative (review)

Reviewed by: Acts of Narrative Michael O'Sullivan Carol Jacobs and Henry Sussman, eds. Acts of Narrative. Stanford: U of Stanford P, 2003. xx + 273 pp. While this remarkable collection of essays dedicated to J. Hillis Miller shies away from any categorical definition of narrative, its illustrious contributors are so steeped in narrative kudos that any collection they produce instantaneously alters narrative's field of inspection. Jacobs informs us in her preface that "[n]arrative, if we are to believe what follows, is everywhere" (ix); individual essays have not been included solely because they explicitly discuss narrative, but because "they themselves would also be narrative acts" (x). The thirteen essays of the collection can very loosely be separated into essays that emphasize the form, psychology, and cross-disciplinary potential of narrative. Henry Sussman's "J. Hillis Miller and the Task of the Critic" begins by lauding Miller as a model of the "authentic critic" (14). In Miller's career trajectory from the "phenomenological gauging of texts" to the "extreme positionality" of "rhetorical criticism" (13), what has remained a constant, for Sussman, is his vulnerability to "a set of occasions" that, once mediated by a critic such as Miller, become both evidence for the critic's "self-education" and "momentous occasions in the cultural engagement of an entire readership" (12). One feels, however, that Sussman's homage knows no bounds when he refers to Miller's writing as "grander than the literary production of Proust" (9) and to the people who read Miller as an "inchoate, invisible mass" that has "made itself susceptible to the critic" (14). Dan Shen's "Difference Behind Similarity: Focalisation in Third-Person Center-of-Consciousness and First-Person Retrospective Narration" and Nicholas Royle's "The 'Telepathy Effect': Notes toward a Reconsideration of Narrative Fiction" are the most strictly formal essays of the collection. In drawing a distinction between "Western" and Chinese "traditions of novelistic criticism," Shen wishes to present a "more balanced" account of the relation between "focalisations in [End Page 724] third-person centre of consciousness and first-person retrospective narration." She argues that the "essential similarity in focalization" between these two modes does not imply identity. There is always a coexistence of the retrospective perspective and the "the moment of experience" in the first person mode, and each mode also gives a different "rhetorical effect" through its handling of "personal reference" (92). Nicholas Royle questions the validity of omniscience and point of view as narrative staples. For him, the term "omniscience" is misleading as it promotes "a thinking of the 'world' of narrative fiction as holistic, unified, and closed" (96). He introduces the term "telepathy" as a form of communication that disregards the "known channels of the senses" (99). He also discredits "point of view" as a "visual metaphor" that has worked to "negate the importance of voice" in narrative theory (101). Royle reveals the metaphoric nature of narrative terminology, and yet it is unlikely that his own suggestion to embrace a "critical vocabulary" developed around a Derridean "telepathic reality of being-two-to-speak" would prove any more successful (103, 109). Dressing narrative investigation up in the language of extrasensory perception may lead readers to eschew their gut reaction in favor of uncritical clairvoyance. Tom Cohen's and Alan Liu's essays imaginatively rework readings in narrative form. Cohen's erudite and expansive "Trackings" redeploys what is a central concern of Miller's work: how "the protocols of a 'reading' might turn against themselves," "if memory were to track 'tracking' itself" thereby "opening the pre-recordings, momentarily or virtually, to disincription" (110). Cohen's vertiginous essay moves from Miller's tracing of the "black hole" in his reading of Faulkner's Go Down, Moses to his own "act of narrative" that seeks to uncover both a "preoriginary domain of the 'aesthetic'" (122) and a reading that would be "prior to phenomenalized thinking" (126), a thinking that has dogged literary studies for much of the twentieth century. These spaces open up for the reader what Cohen refers to as an agency for "renetworking the telemnemonics of scriptive legacies" (129). Such "information age" rhetoric is echoed in Alan Liu's "Sidney's Technology: A Critique...

No support for dual process accounts of human affective learning in simple Pavlovian conditioning

Dual process accounts of affective learning state that the learning of likes and dislikes reflects a learning mechanism that is distinct from the one reflected in expectancy learning, the learning of signal relationships, and has different empirical characteristics. Affective learning, for example, is said not to be affected by: (a) extinction training; (b) occasion setting; (c) cue competition; and (d) awareness of the CS‐US contingencies. These predictions were tested in a series of experiments that employed simple Pavlovian conditioning procedures. Neutral visual pictures of geometric shapes, or tactile conditional stimuli (CS) were paired with aversive electrotactile unconditional stimuli (US). Dependent measures were physiological (skin conductance, blink startle modulation) or verbal (US expectancy, on‐line and off‐line ratings of CS pleasantness). Different combinations of these dependent measures were employed across different experiments in an attempt to assess affective and expectancy learning simultaneously. Changes in CS pleasantness as indexed by ratings or blink startle modulation were readily observed. However, contrary to the predictions from dual‐process accounts, results indicated that acquired CS unpleasantness is subject to extinction, occasion setting, cue competition, and not found in absence of CS‐US contingency awareness.

Avoidance Behavior Can Function as a Negative Occasion Setter.

The authors put forward the hypothesis that avoidance learning can result from the fact that participants learn (a) that a stimulus is followed by an unconditioned stimulus (US) when the avoidance behavior is not emitted and (b) that the stimulus is not followed by the US when the avoidance behavior is emitted. As such, avoidance behavior is assumed to function as a negative occasion setter. The results of a contingency judgment experiment involving 65 students showed that avoidance behavior indeed has the unique functional properties of a negative occasion setter (resistance to counterconditioning and selective transfer of modulation).

Contextual control of fluid consumption: The effects of context extinction

Rats were trained on a conditional discrimination task in which saccharin was paired with LiCl in one context but paired with saline in another context. Rats drank less saccharin in the danger context than in the safe context, and consumption in the home cage was intermediate to consumption in the two training contexts. Rats also avoided the danger context on a choice test. After discrimination training, rats were given extinction trials with the danger context alone (Experiment 1 and 2) or with the danger context + water (Experiment 2). Extinction trials with the context + water abolished contextual control over saccharin consumption but not the avoidance of the danger context on the choice test. Extinction trials with the context alone abolished avoidance of the danger context but not contextual control over saccharin consumption. These data suggest that occasion setting, not simple context conditioning, is the mechanism by which contextual cues modulate fluid consumption.

Extending the Role of Associative Learning Processes in Nicotine Addiction

Compulsive smoking is a worldwide public health problem. Although research has confirmed the importance of associative learning processes in nicotine addiction, therapies targeting nicotine-associated cues still have a high relapse rate. Most theories conceptualize nicotine as an 'outcome' that reinforces behaviors and/or changes the affective value of stimuli. Albeit important, this view does not capture the complexity of associative processes involved in nicotine addiction. For example, nicotine serves as a conditional stimulus acquiring new appetitive/affective properties when paired with a non-drug reward. Also, nicotine functions as an occasion setter that participates in higher-order associative processes that likely permit a more pervasive influence of conditioned cues that are resistant to typically cue-exposure therapy techniques. Finally, nicotine appears to amplify the salience of other stimuli that have some incentive value resulting in enhanced nicotine self-administration and conditioned reinforcement processes. Future smoking intervention strategies should take into consideration these additional associative learning processes.

Associative learning in animals: A selective review of recent topics and contribution of Japanese researchers1

Abstract: This article addressed several important topics in the field of associative learning in nonhuman animals: event contingency, associative retardation (learned helplessness and irrelevance), occasion setting, renewal of extinguished responses, acquired equivalence and distinctiveness, differential outcome effect, and retrospective inference. These topics have been studied with Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning preparations as behavioral test tubes for assessing animals’ cognitive abilities. The empiric data are suggesting highly cognitive abilities of animals in event processing. This article also reviewed studies conducted by Japanese psychologists taking the modern associationists approach. Although activities of Japanese researchers in this field of research are high, they are required to make a more unique contribution to the field.

Simultaneous and sequential Feature Negative discriminations: Elemental learning and occasion setting in human Pavlovian conditioning

Using a conditioned suppression task, we investigated simultaneous (XA−/A+) vs. sequential (X → A−/A+) Feature Negative (FN) discrimination learning in humans. We expected the simultaneous discrimination to result in X (or alternatively the XA configuration) becoming an inhibitor acting directly on the US, and the sequential discrimination in X becoming a negative occasion setter acting indirectly on the A–US link. After simultaneous FN training, X+ training completely abolished discriminative XA/A responding (Experiment 1), and X transferred inhibition to new targets B regardless of their training history (B+ or YB−/B+) (Experiment 2), suggesting X became a simple inhibitor. After sequential FN training, X showed the predicted selective transfer to a target B that also had been modulated (Y → B−/B+), not to a simple excitor (B+) (Experiment 4), but turning X into an excitor (X+) likewise disrupted discriminative X → A/A responding (Experiment 3). This suggests that X acquired a combination of modulatory and direct inhibitory properties, and that the joint contribution of both components is necessary for the suppression of the target-induced US activation.

Negative priming and occasion setting in an appetitive Pavlovian procedure.

Rats received training in which two auditory target stimuli, X and Y, were signaled by two visual stimuli, A and B, and followed by food (i.e., A-->X+, B-->Y+). The test consisted of presentations of X and Y preceded either by the same signal as during training (same trials: A-->X, B-->Y) or by the alternative signal (different trials: A-->Y, B-->X). After 8 training sessions, the animals responded less on same trials than on different trials; this effect was significantly reduced after 24 training sessions. In two additional experiments, animals that had also experienced presentations of A and B alone, either before or during training, showed the opposite pattern of results, responding more on same trials than on different trials. These results are interpreted as being due to the interaction between the effects of occasion setting and negative priming (see Wagner, 1981).

Fear of pain, physical performance, and attentional processes in patients with fibromyalgia

Patients with fibromyalgia often present with increased levels of disability and physical functioning, for which the determinants are still unclear. In patients with other musculoskeletal pain syndromes, such as chronic low back pain, physical performance and disability levels are shown to be strongly associated with pain-related fear, and even stronger than pain severity. The present study was aimed at examining the role of pain-related fear and attentional processes on tolerance for physical activity in fibromyalgia patients. High and low fearful fibromyalgia patients ( N=81) were requested to perform a physical task, a cognitive (reaction time) task, and a dual task in which the physical and cognitive tasks were combined. It was hypothesized that high fearful patients would terminate the physical performance task sooner than low fearful patients, and would show a greater disruption on the cognitive task. In addition, it was expected that when distracted in the dual task, high fearful patients would show improved performance on the physical task after a fear reduction instruction. The results showed that pain itself was a greater predictor of activity tolerance than pain-related fear, but that pain-related fear was the stronger predictor of reaction times on the cognitive task. Also, all groups showed equal improvement in physical performance in the dual task. The findings suggest that baseline pain acts as an occasion setter which determines the level of physical activity the patient is willing to perform, regardless of pain increase and threat-reducing instructions.

Effects of noise on the performance of rats in an operant discrimination task.

Two experiments examined the effect of the presentation of an irregular, moderate intensity auditory stimulus ('noise') on the performance of rats in an operant discrimination task. In Experiment 1, rats first learned to press a lever in the presence of a visual stimulus but not in its absence. Discrimination performance was impaired during subsequent exposure to noise. In Experiment 2, different groups of rats learned the discrimination task under a noise or a no-noise condition. Thereafter, all rats were tested under each noise condition. Discrimination performance was best when the noise condition at test was identical to the noise condition at training. These results were discussed in the framework of arousal, distraction, generalization decrement, and contextual occasion setting. They point to the necessity of using a 2x2 factorial design in human and animal research on noise effects, with noise condition at training (noise present or absent) and noise condition at test (noise present or absent) as factors.

Conditional discrimination learning and negative patterning in rats with neonatal hippocampal lesion induced by ionizing radiation.

This study was undertaken to investigate the associative process underlying serial feature positive conditional discrimination learning (X-->A+/A-) and the role of the hippocampus in the solution of tasks demanding a configural association strategy such as the negative patterning discrimination (XA-/X+/A+). It has been suggested that the hippocampus is essential for the learning of complex tasks, so, it is expected that hippocampal lesions would prove equally detrimental to performance in both tasks, but would not interfere with simple discrimination learning. Hippocampal lesions were made with X-radiation exposure to neonate rats after completion of a parametric study 'J. Neurosci. Methods 75 (1997) 41' that established the best radiation parameters to selectively lesion the hippocampal dentate gyrus. When adults, rats were submitted to a serial feature positive conditional discrimination task with the trials 'House light/Tone: water (H-->T+)', 'Tone: no water (T-)', and two simple discrimination with the trials 'Clicker: water (C+)' and 'Noise: no water (N-)' in Experiment I. In Experiment II, adult rats, irradiated and control, were submitted to the negative patterning task with the trials 'House light/Tone: no water (HT-)', 'House light: water (H+)', 'Tone: water (T+)', and to the non-conditional discrimination with the trial Noise: no water (N-)'. In contrast to the expectation of impaired performance in these tasks by lesioned rats, animals with damage to the hippocampal dentate gyrus learned the complex and the simple tasks as well as control subjects. These results suggest that the dentate gyrus does not participate directly in the modulation of acquisition of tasks demanding a complex strategy of occasion setting in procedures of serial conditional discrimination or a configural strategy, important for the negative patterning discrimination solution.

Occasion setting and drug tolerance.

There is considerable evidence that drug-paired cues become associated with drug effects. It has been hypothesized that these cues act as Pavlovian conditional stimuli (CSs), and elicit conditional compensatory responses that contribute to tolerance. On the basis of a conditioning analysis of tolerance, we would expect that it should be possible to establish drug-paired cues as occasion setters, as well as conditional stimuli. Using feature-positive discrimination training, we evaluated the contribution of occasion-setting stimuli (as well as CSs) to tolerance to the hypothermic effect of ethanol in rats. The results indicated that a complete associative analysis of drug tolerance should incorporate not only the CS properties of predrug cues, but also the occasion-setting properties of such cues. The findings have implications for interpreting conflicting findings concerning extinction of tolerance and for cue-exposure treatments of addiction.

Serial and simultaneous feature positive discriminations in a human Skinner box

In the present experiment participants were presented either a serial (F→T+/T−) or a simultaneous (FT+/T−) feature positive discrimination using a Skinner box for humans. After the participants mastered the discrimination, the associative properties of F were examined using a transfer test and a counterconditioning manipulation. F affected responding to a transfer target less in the Serial than in the Simultaneous condition. However, counterconditioning of F did not affect initial discrimination performance in either condition. These results were discussed in the framework of occasion setting, elemental learning, configural learning, and a neural network model.

Context Specificity of Excitation and Inhibition in Ambiguous Stimuli

Two experiments examined the susceptibility of excitation and inhibition to contextual change when the conditioned stimulus (CS) was ambiguous using an appetitive conditioning paradigm. In Experiment 1, excitation to a CS was lost with a context switch when inhibition had been learned to the CS in a prior feature-negative (FN) discrimination. Control groups that had received either more or less excitatory conditioning in the absence of inhibitory pretraining showed no loss. In Experiment 2 inhibition was lost with a context switch in a group that had received excitatory and then inhibitory conditioning with the CS. No loss was observed in a group that had not received excitatory pretraining. The results suggest that contexts are especially likely to control performance to ambiguous CSs when they can modulate the second of two learned associations. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for occasion setting and modern conditioning theory.

Further evidence that conditioned inhibition is not the mechanism of an extinction cue’s effect: A reinforced cue prevents spontaneous recovery

Previous research has demonstrated that discrete cues presented during extinction of a conditioned response (extinction cues) subsequently reduce spontaneous recovery and the renewal effect. In order to assess whether an extinction cue’s effect is due to conditioned inhibition, the effect of pairing an extinction cue with food on the cue’s capacity to modulate spontaneous recovery was investigated in an appetitive conditioning experiment with rats. Conditioned inhibitors paired with the unconditioned stimulus lose their potential to inhibit responding. The food-paired extinction cue did not lose its potential to reduce spontaneous recovery. In fact, it reduced spontaneous recovery more than did an extinction cue that was not paired with food. The results indicate that extinction cues attenuate postextinction recovery of conditioned responding through a mechanism other than conditioned inhibition. The cue’s action appears to be similar to that of serial negative occasion setters. Theories of spontaneous recovery and the relationship of extinction cues to other modulatory stimuli are discussed.

Context modulation of US signal value following explicit and nonexplicit training

Context modulation of an unconditioned stimulus (US) signal value was examined in three groups of rats. In Group A+/B−, subjects received explicit training in which a single food pellet US was followed by three additional pellets after either a short delay (in Context A) or a long delay (in Context B). Two other groups received nonexplicit training in which subjects received either the same conditions in Context A, but simple exposure to Context B (Group A+/Bo), or the same conditions in Context B, but simple exposure to Context A (Group Ao/B−). In the test, only Group A+/B− showed significantly more magazine entries shortly after the single food pellet in Context A, compared to Context B. Implications for theories of occasion setting and context modulation are considered.

Occasion Setters: Specificity to the US and the CS–US Association

Two experiments using pigeon subjects examined whether the action of a positive occasion setter was specific to a particular CS–US association. In both experiments subjects were trained on a switching procedure, in which a diffuse feature, A, signaled that keylight x would be followed by one reinforcer, US1, and that a second keylight y would be followed a different reinforcer, US2. A second feature, B, signaled the converse arrangement, that x would be followed by US2 and y by US1. The intention was to establish whether the features allowed the birds to anticipate the specific keylight/US associations that they signaled. This was achieved using a blocking technique, by examining the ability of feature A to prevent learning about two test stimuli, S and D, presented in compound with x. On same trials A signaled stimulus x, which was followed, as in training, by US1; on these trials x was accompanied by S. On different trials x was signaled by A but followed by the other reinforcer, US2, and accompanied by the second test stimulus, D. If A signaled specific CS–US associations, then the US would be predicted in the former case but surprising in the latter, so that acquisition of associative strength by stimulus S would be blocked, but acquisition by stimulus D would not. In both experiments stimulus S supported less conditioned responding than stimulus D, which is consistent with this interpretation. The implications of these findings for theories of occasion setting are discussed.

Context modulation of US signal value.

Context modulation of unconditioned stimulus (US) signal value was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, rats showed significantly more magazine entries after a single food pellet US in Context A (in which three additional pellets shortly followed) than in Context B (in which the delivery of three additional pellets was delayed). Experiment 2 replicated this effect and showed that any differences in contextual associative strength at the time the single food pellet was delivered did not importantly contribute to context modulation. Implications for theories of occasion setting and context modulation are considered.

Sequential and simultaneous feature positive discriminations: Occasion setting and configural learning in human Pavlovian conditioning.

Using a conditioned suppression preparation, the authors investigated sequential (X --> A+/A-) versus simultaneous (XA+/A-) feature positive (FP) discrimination learning in humans. The sequential discrimination was expected to be resolved by means of a Feature X Modulated Target A-US association and the simultaneous discrimination by a feature X-US association. After sequential FP training, extinction of Feature X did not affect discriminative X --> A/A responding (Experiment 1), and X transferred its modulatory ability only to new targets, B, that had also been modulated (Experiment 2). This suggests that the sequential FP discrimination indeed resulted in occasion setting. Unlike expected, Feature X Extinction did not affect discriminative XA/A responding after simultaneous FP training (Experiment 3), while at the same time Feature X did show the predicted nonselective transfer to new targets, B (Experiment 4). J. M. Pearce's (1987) configural learning theory can account for most but not all findings of Experiments 3 and 4.

Sequential and simultaneous feature positive discriminations: Occasion setting and configural learning in human Pavlovian conditioning.

Sequential and simultaneous feature positive discriminations: Occasion setting and configural learning in human Pavlovian conditioning.