Acquired performance is not merely a direct reflection of te associative strength of elucidating stimuli. Research using Pavlovian conditioning has demonstrated that other cues present during testing can modify the behavioral impact of eliciting stimuli. We propose to investigate properties of behavioral modifiers called 'occasion setters.' which appear to work by informing the subject of whether or not a subsequent conditioned stimulus is going to be reinforced on that trial. Limited recent evience has suggested that rules for processing of information about occasion-setting are similar to those for simple Pavlovian conditioning. As considerable knowledge of processes governing Pavlovian conditioning already exists, we propose to extend this analogy by seeking additional parallels in occasion setting to well establish Pavlovian processes, thereby further illuminating the nature of occasion setting. Although occasion setting and simple conditioning possible obey parallel rules, evidence suggests that a stimulus's occasion- setting attributes and its Pavlovian excitatory attributes are independent. That is, changing either Pavlovian or occasion-setting attributes of a stimulus does not appear to alter the stimulus' occasion-setting or Pavlovian attributes, respectively. We have demonstrated modulation of the meaning of occasion setters by what we call secons- and third-order occasion setters, and we now propose to investigate the independence of simple excitatory conditioning, first- order occasion setting, and second-order occasion setting. We anticipate both transfer and blocking will occur within a common level of behavioral control, but not between levels of control. Additional studies will examine the role of occasion setting in instrumental discrimination tasks and sequence learning, and the value of hierarchical memory models in explaining occasion setting.
| Miguez, Gonzalo; McConnell, Bridget; Polack, Cody W et al. (2018) Proactive interference by cues presented without outcomes: Differences in context specificity of latent inhibition and conditioned inhibition. Learn Behav 46:265-280 |
| Miller, Ralph R; Polack, Cody W (2018) Sources of maladaptive behavior in 'normal' organisms. Behav Processes 154:4-12 |
| Seitz, Benjamin M; Polack, Cody W; Miller, Ralph R (2018) Adaptive memory: Is there a reproduction-processing effect? J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 44:1167-1179 |
| Polack, Cody W; Miller, Ralph R (2018) Associative structure of conditioned inhibition produced by inhibitory perceptual learning treatment. Learn Behav : |
| Craddock, Paul; Wasserman, Jessica S; Polack, Cody W et al. (2018) Associative structure of second-order conditioning in humans. Learn Behav 46:171-181 |
| Witnauer, James E; Hutchings, Ryan; Miller, Ralph R (2017) Methods of comparing associative models and an application to retrospective revaluation. Behav Processes 144:20-32 |
| Urushihara, Kouji; Miller, Ralph R (2017) Causal superlearning arising from interactions among cues. J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn 43:183-196 |
| Polack, Cody W; Jozefowiez, Jérémie; Miller, Ralph R (2017) Stepping back from 'persistence and relapse' to see the forest: Associative interference. Behav Processes 141:128-136 |
| Laborda, Mario A; Schofield, Casey A; Johnson, Emily M et al. (2016) The Extinction and Return of Fear of Public Speaking. Behav Modif 40:901-921 |
| Soares, Julia S; Polack, Cody W; Miller, Ralph R (2016) Retrieval-induced versus context-induced forgetting: Does retrieval-induced forgetting depend on context shifts? J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 42:366-78 |
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