Recency-to-primacy shift in cue competition

TY - JOUR

T1 - Recency-to-primacy shift in cue competition

AU - Lipatova, Olga

AU - Wheeler, Daniel S.

AU - Vadillo, Miguel A.

AU - Miller, Ralph R.

PY - 2006/10

Y1 - 2006/10

N2 - Three experiments were conducted using a lick-suppression preparation with rats to determine whether temporal and physical context shifts modulate the effectiveness of 2 sequentially trained blocking stimuli. Experiment I ascertained that it is possible to obtain blocking by conditioning rats to react to a target cue using 2 different blocking cues, each trained with a single-phase blocking paradigm. Experiment 2 showed that the more recently trained blocking stimulus was more effective (i.e., showed a recency effect) when testing was conducted immediately after training, but a long retention interval attenuated blocking by the most recently trained blocking stimulus and increased blocking by the initially trained blocking stimulus (i.e., a recency-to-primacy shift). This shift from recency to primacy affected in Experiment 2 by varying the retention interval was replicated in Experiment 3 by changing the physical context between training and testing. Taken together, the results indicate that the effectiveness of sequentially trained competing stimuli follows the same recency-to-primacy shift rule that is seen in traditional interference phenomena.

AB - Three experiments were conducted using a lick-suppression preparation with rats to determine whether temporal and physical context shifts modulate the effectiveness of 2 sequentially trained blocking stimuli. Experiment I ascertained that it is possible to obtain blocking by conditioning rats to react to a target cue using 2 different blocking cues, each trained with a single-phase blocking paradigm. Experiment 2 showed that the more recently trained blocking stimulus was more effective (i.e., showed a recency effect) when testing was conducted immediately after training, but a long retention interval attenuated blocking by the most recently trained blocking stimulus and increased blocking by the initially trained blocking stimulus (i.e., a recency-to-primacy shift). This shift from recency to primacy affected in Experiment 2 by varying the retention interval was replicated in Experiment 3 by changing the physical context between training and testing. Taken together, the results indicate that the effectiveness of sequentially trained competing stimuli follows the same recency-to-primacy shift rule that is seen in traditional interference phenomena.

KW - blocking

KW - pavlovian conditioning

KW - retrieval

KW - RETROSPECTIVE REVALUATION

KW - COMPARATOR HYPOTHESIS

KW - CAUSALITY JUDGMENTS

KW - RETENTION INTERVAL

KW - COMPOUND

KW - INTERFERENCE

KW - EXTINCTION

KW - RECOVERY

KW - ASSOCIATIONS

KW - INHIBITION

U2 - 10.1037/0097-7403.32.4.396

DO - 10.1037/0097-7403.32.4.396

M3 - Article

SN - 0097-7403

VL - 32

SP - 396

EP - 406

JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

IS - 4

ER -