Pavlovian contingencies and temporal information.

Full Abstract

The effects of altering the contingency between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) on the acquisition of autoshaped responding was investigated by changing the frequency of unsignaled USs during the intertrial interval. The addition of the unsignaled USs had an effect on acquisition speed comparable with that of massing trials. The effects of these manipulations can be understood in terms of their effect on the amount of information (number of bits) that the average CS conveys to the subject about the timing of the next US. The number of reinforced CSs prior to acquisition is inversely related to the information content of the CS.

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Author information

Author/s: Balsam, Peter D (PD); Fairhurst, Stephen (S); Gallistel, Charles R (CR);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Barnard College, New York, NY 10027, USA. balsam(-atsign-)columbia.edu

Grants: 5R01MH068073 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes (J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jul; vol 32 (issue 3) : pp 284-94

Dates: Created 2006/07/12; Completed 2006/11/28; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 16834495, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Animals
Association Learning - physiology
Behavior, Animal
Columbidae
Conditioning, Classical - physiology

Discrimination Learning - physiology
Inhibition (Psychology)
Reinforcement (Psychology)
Reinforcement Schedule
Time Factors

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