The effect of conditioned inhibition on the specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer effect

Alarcón, Daniel; Bonardi, Charlotte

Abstract

Four experiments examined the effect of Pavlovian conditioned inhibition on specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) in human participants. The task comprised an instrumental phase in which two responses (R1, R2) were each paired with one of two outcomes (O1, O2: R1-->O1, R2-->O2), and a Pavlovian phase, in which two CSs, CS1 and CS2 each signalled one of the two outcomes (CS1-->O1, CS2-->O2). In Experiments 1-2 a conditioned inhibitor, X, predicted the omission of one of the outcomes (e.g. CS1-->O1, CS1X-->nothing). In a subsequent test, performance of R1 and R2 was examined in the presence of CS1 and CS2. A specific PIT effect was observed: R1 was performed more than R2 during CS1, and R2 more than R1 during CS2. This PIT effect was significantly reduced by the presence of the inhibitor X in Experiment 1, in which the Pavlovian phase followed the instrumental phase, and in Experiment 2 in which it preceded it. No such effect was observed when X was presented in the absence of any expectation of the outcomes during the PIT test (Experiment 3a), or when X was trained as a signal for an alternative outcome (Experiment 3b). These results are consistent with the suggestion that the specific PIT effect occurs through a stimulus-outcome-response (S-O-R) mechanism, according to which the CS evokes a representation of the outcome which in turn elicits the response (e.g. CS1-->O1-->R1). The conditioned inhibitor suppresses performance of the response by suppressing activation of the outcome representation.

Citation

Alarcón, D., & Bonardi, C. (2016). The effect of conditioned inhibition on the specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000087

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 2, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 9, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition
• Print ISSN: 2329-8456
• Electronic ISSN: 2329-8456
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000087
• Public URL: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/30410
• Publisher URL: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycarticles/2015-51339-001
• Related Public URLs: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/xan/index.aspx
• Copyright Statement: Copyright information regarding this work can be found at the following address: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/end_user_agreement.pdf
• Additional Information: This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.