Short-term memory for "surprising" versus "expected" unconditioned stimuli in Pavlovian conditioning

Abstract

Rabbits were trained via a Pavlovian eyelid-conditioning regime to respond differentially to a conditioned stimulus (CSR) depending on whether or not that stimulus was preceded several seconds earlier by a preparatory stimulus consisting of an electric shock otherwise employed as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Following training, differential responding to CSR varied systematically with the interval between the preparatory stimulus and CSR, consistent with assumptions concerning decay of information in short-term memory. The major finding, however, involved the test effects of announcing the preparatory stimulus by either a conditioned stimulus with which it had otherwise been paired (CS+) or a conditioned stimulus with which it had otherwise been systematically unpaired (CS-). The greater differential responding to the following CSR in the latter case is taken to support the notion that a "surprising" UCS is more likely to be retained (rehearsed) in short-term memory than is an "expected" UCS.