Summation: Assessment of a configural theory |
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| Authors: | Robert A Rescorla |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, 19104, Philadelphia, PA
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| Abstract: | In five experiments, rats were given Pavlovian pairings of auditory and visual stimuli with delivery of food pellets. Experiment 1 found greater responding to an AB compound after training with the individual A and B stimuli, compared with responding both to the A and B elements and to a separately trained CD compound. Experiment 2 found this enhanced responding to depend on the associative strengths of A and B. In Experiment 3, responding was greater to a CD compound than to the other compounds after an AB-, AD+, BC+ training procedure. In Experiment 4, responding to an AB compound was greater than that to the elements after A was reinforced on a 100% schedule and B on a 50% schedule. In Experiment 5, responding to an AC compound was greater than that to either A or C after an AB+, CD+, A-training procedure. A configural theory, such as that proposed by Pearce (1987), anticipates summation in none of these procedures, unless the conditioned context is assumed to have a salience greater than zero. In order to predict summation in Experiments 3, 4, and 5, a context salience greater than that of the elements must be assumed. However, such an assumption also anticipates that extinction of a 100% stimulus should eliminate responding to a 50% stimulus. The results of Experiment 3 contradicted that prediction. These results conform better to the expectations of elemental models of conditioning. |
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