Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations

Austen, J.M.; McGregor, A.

Abstract

Rats were trained in a triangular water maze in which a compound of geometric and landmark cues indicated the position of a submerged platform. Rats that then underwent revaluation of the geometric cues in the absence of the landmarks subsequently failed to discriminate between the landmarks. In contrast, those animals that received geometry training consistent with their previous experience of the geometry–landmark compound continued to discriminate the landmark cues. The experiment showed that within-compound associations had formed between the geometry and landmarks, and that representations of absent geometric cues could be evoked via presentation of the landmark cues alone. We argue that these evoked representations of the absent geometry cues can counteract any overshadowing of the landmark by geometry cues, and may sometimes result in potentiation. The results of this study do not support theories of cue-competition failure based on independent cue processing, but remain readily explicable by appeal to an account based on within-compound associations.

Citation

Austen, J., & McGregor, A. (2014). Revaluation of geometric cues reduces landmark discrimination via within-compound associations. Learning & Behavior, 42(4), 330-336. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-014-0150-1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 21, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Aug 15, 2014
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Feb 11, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 18, 2015
• Journal: Learning and Behavior
• Print ISSN: 1543-4494
• Electronic ISSN: 1543-4508
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 330-336
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-014-0150-1
• Keywords: Cue competition, Spatial learning, Within-compound association, Water maze, Geometry.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1445656