The effect of US signalling and the US–CS interval on backward conditioning in mice

Sanderson, D. J.; Cuell, S. F.; Bannerman, D. M.

Abstract

The effect of US signalling and the US–CS interval in backward conditioning was assessed in mice. For one group of mice the presentation of food was signalled by a tone and for another group, food was unsignalled. For half of the mice, within each group, the presentation of food preceded a visual cue by 10 s. For the other half, food was presented at the start of the visual cue (0-s US–CS interval), resulting in simultaneous pairings of these events. A summation test and a subsequent retardation test were used to assess the inhibitory effects of backward conditioning in comparison to training with a non-reinforced visual cue that controlled for the possible effects of latent inhibition and conditioned inhibition caused as a consequence of differential conditioning. In the summation test unsignalled presentations of the US resulted in inhibition when the US–CS interval was 10 s, but not 0 s. Signalled presentations of the US resulted in inhibition, independent of the US–CS interval. In the retardation test, independent of US signalling, a US–CS interval of 10 s failed to result in inhibition, but an interval of 0 s resulted in greater conditioned responding to the backward CS than the control CS. A generalisation decrement account of the effect of signalling the US with a 0-s US–CS interval, which resulted in reduced responding in the summation test and faster acquisition in the retardation test, is discussed.

Citation

Sanderson, D. J., Cuell, S. F., & Bannerman, D. M. (2014). The effect of US signalling and the US–CS interval on backward conditioning in mice. Learning and Motivation, 48, 22-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2014.08.002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 18, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Nov 8, 2014
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Nov 10, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 12, 2014
• Journal: Learning and Motivation
• Print ISSN: 0023-9690
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-9122
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Pages: 22-32
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2014.08.002
• Keywords: Learning, Conditioned inhibition, Priming, Temporal contiguity, Behaviour, External inhibition.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1417993