Further evidence for the role of temporal contiguity as a determinant of overshadowing

Alcalá, José A.; Ogallar, Pedro M.; Prados, José; Urcelay, Gonzalo P.

Abstract

Three experiments explored whether weakening temporal contiguity between auditory cues and an aversive outcome attenuated cue competition in an avoidance learning task with human participants. Overall, with strong temporal contiguity between auditory cues and the outcome during training (the offset of the predictive auditory signals concurred with the onset of the outcome), the target cue trained as part of a compound yielded less avoidance behaviour than the control cue trained alone, an instance of overshadowing. However, weakening temporal contiguity during training (inserting a 5-s trace) attenuated overshadowing, resulting in similar avoidance behaviour in response to the control and target cues. These results provide evidence that, as predicted by a recent modification of Pearce’s configural theory, temporal contiguity is critical for determining cue competition.

Citation

Alcalá, J. A., Ogallar, P. M., Prados, J., & Urcelay, G. P. (2024). Further evidence for the role of temporal contiguity as a determinant of overshadowing. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77(7), 1375-1389. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231197170

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 8, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 18, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-07
• Deposit Date: Aug 9, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 18, 2023
• Journal: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Print ISSN: 1747-0218
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-0226
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 77
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 1375-1389
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231197170
• Keywords: overshadowing, auditory signal, avoidance learning, configural processing, contiguity
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/24141340
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17470218231197170