Memory priming and trial spacing effects in Pavlovian learning

Ceyhun Sunsay; Lee Stetson; Mark E. Bouton

doi:10.3758/bf03196023

Trial Spacing in Instrumental Running

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1966.18.2.623 ◽

1966 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 623-630 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James L. Fozard

Keyword(s):

Spatial Variability ◽

Statistical Learning ◽

Learning Theory ◽

Spontaneous Regression ◽

Spontaneous Recovery ◽

Extinction Performance ◽

Acquisition Performance ◽

Spacing Effects ◽

Trial Spacing ◽

Daily Block

Trial spacing was studied over 120 acquisition trials and 20 each of extinction, reacquisition, and re-extinction, using five intertrial intervals from 40 sec. to 120 min. in between four daily trials. Throughout acquisition, performance of the 120-min. group increased throughout the course of a daily block, while the others first increased, then decreased. Spontaneous regression persisted throughout acquisition. Extinction performance was not systematically related to trial spacing, and no evidence for spontaneous recovery was found. Changes in measured spatial variability in the alley indexed learning but did not differentiate trial spacing effects. The results generally failed to confirm qualitative hypotheses about trial spacing derived from statistical learning theory.

Download Full-text

Associative Learning from Replayed Experience

10.1101/100800 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Elliot A. Ludvig ◽

Mahdieh S. Mirian ◽

E. James Kehoe ◽

Richard S. Sutton

Keyword(s):

Associative Learning ◽

Spontaneous Recovery ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Learning Rule ◽

Associative Model ◽

Retrospective Revaluation ◽

Spacing Effects ◽

Trial Spacing ◽

Associative Models ◽

Present Simulation

AbstractWe develop an extension of the Rescorla-Wagner model of associative learning. In addition to learning from the current trial, the new model supposes that animals store and replay previous trials, learning from the replayed trials using the same learning rule. This simple idea provides a unified explanation for diverse phenomena that have proved challenging to earlier associative models, including spontaneous recovery, latent inhibition, retrospective revaluation, and trial spacing effects. For example, spontaneous recovery is explained by supposing that the animal replays its previous trials during the interval between extinction and test. These include earlier acquisition trials as well as recent extinction trials, and thus there is a gradual re-acquisition of the conditioned response. We present simulation results for the simplest version of this replay idea, where the trial memory is assumed empty at the beginning of an experiment, all experienced trials are stored and none removed, and sampling from the memory is performed at random. Even this minimal replay model is able to explain the challenging phenomena, illustrating the explanatory power of an associative model enhanced by learning from remembered as well as real experiences.

Download Full-text

Priming and trial spacing in extinction: Effects on extinction performance, spontaneous recovery, and reinstatement in appetitive conditioning

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/17470210500299045 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 59 (5) ◽

pp. 809-829 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Erik W. Moody ◽

Ceyhun Sunsay ◽

Mark E. Bouton

Keyword(s):

Short Term Memory ◽

Spontaneous Recovery ◽

Appetitive Conditioning ◽

Extinction Performance ◽

Learning Mechanisms ◽

Short Term ◽

Spacing Effects ◽

Trial Spacing ◽

Short Itis

Previous research in this laboratory suggests that priming of the conditional stimulus (CS) in short-term memory may play a role in the trial-spacing effects in appetitive conditioning. For example, a nonreinforced presentation of a CS 60 s before a reinforced trial with the same CS produced slower acquisition than a CS presentation that occurred 240 s before the reinforced trial. The results were consistent with the self-generated priming mechanism proposed by Wagner (e.g., Wagner 1978, 1981). The present experiments extended the earlier work by examining the effects of trial spacing in extinction rather than acquisition. After conditioning with a mixture of intertrial intervals (ITIs), rats received extinction with ITIs of 60 or 240 s, longer or shorter values, or different ways of “chunking” extinction trials in time. Although trial spacing produced effects on extinction performance that were consistent with our previous research on acquisition, there were few long-term differences in spontaneous recovery or in reinstatement. Short ITIs in extinction appear to affect extinction performance more than they affect extinction learning. Mechanisms of trial spacing in conditioning and extinction are discussed.

Download Full-text