Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Jul;34(3):324-35.
doi: 10.1037/0097-7403.34.3.324.

Formation of excitatory and inhibitory associations between absent events

Peter C Holland  1 , Andrew Sherwood
Affiliations

Formation of excitatory and inhibitory associations between absent events

Peter C Holland et al. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Considerable evidence indicates that associations may be formed between two events even when one or both of them is absent at the time of learning. Previously, some researchers asserted that excitatory associations are formed when associatively activated representations for two events are paired, whereas others claimed that inhibitory associations are formed. In three experiments, the authors investigated the nature of tone-sucrose learning when associatively activated representations of those events were paired in the absence of either of the events themselves. Experiment 1 found substantial excitatory learning when the tone surrogate preceded the sucrose surrogate in training. Experiment 2 evaluated other accounts for the results of Experiment 1, and Experiment 3 found evidence for inhibitory tone-sucrose learning when the tone and sucrose surrogates were presented in simultaneous or backward order. The results indicated that the nature of representation-mediated learning is influenced by some of the same variables as more standard associative learning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean (±SEM) percentage time in the food cup during the tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and pre-CS periods in the nonreinforced (labeled T1 and T2) and the reinforced (labeled R1-R6) test sessions of Experiment 1.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cartoon of “A2-A2” (Panel A), “A2-A1” (Panel B) and “A1-A2” (Panel C) accounts for the results of Experiment 1, which were evaluated in Experiment 2. See text for details.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean (±SEM) percentage time in the food cup during the tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and pre-CS periods in the nonreinforced (labeled T1 and T2) and the reinforced (labeled R1-R6) test sessions of Experiment 2.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean (±SEM) percentage time in the food cup during the tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and pre-CS periods in the nonreinforced (labeled T1 and T2) and the reinforced (labeled R1-R6) test sessions of Experiment 3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chang RC, Blaisdell AP, Miller RR. Backward conditioning: Mediation by the context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 2003;29:171–183. - PubMed
    1. Cole RP, Miller RR. Conditioned excitation and conditioned inhibition acquired through backward conditioning. Learning and Motivation. 1999;30:129–156.
    1. Davey GCL, McKenna I. The effects of postconditioning revaluation of CS1 and UCS following Pavlovian second-order electrodermal conditioning in humans. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1983;35B:125–133. - PubMed
    1. Delamater AR, LoLordo VM, Sosa W. Outcome-specific conditioned inhibition in Pavlovian backward conditioning. Learning & Behavior. 2003;31:393–402. - PubMed
    1. Dickinson A, Balleine B. Motivational control of instrumental action. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 1995;4:162–167.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources