The Role of Background Stimuli during Pavlovian Conditioning
Abstract
An investigation was carried out into the part played by background stimuli during Pavlovian conditioning. Groups of rats were presented with tone CSs and unavoidable foot-shock USs. Both CS-US conditional probabilities and US intensity were manipulated across groups. Subsequently all animals were tested for their reactions to the environment in which they had previously been trained. During tests neither the CS nor the US was presented. It was found that the degree to which rats avoided the environment was inversely related to the probability of the CS being followed by a US and directly related to the level of US intensity to which they had been exposed during training. The results largely supported Rescorla and Wagner's (1972) theory of Pavlovian conditioning.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A cue paired with a US becomes the best predictor and overshadows the context, leading to little context conditioning; when CS and US are unpaired, the context becomes the only predictor, leading to increased context conditioning.
“A cue paired with a US becomes the best predictor of the US. The cue overshadows the context, which then elicits little context conditioning (Rescorla and Wagner, 1972). In contrast, when the CS and US are not paired, the context becomes the only predictor of the US, although a poor one, leading to increased context conditioning (Odling-Smee, 1975a, b; Rescorla and Wagner, 1972).”
From Phasic vs Sustained Fear in Rats and Humans: Role of the Extended Amygdala in Fear vs Anxiety (2010) · cites this paper as Odling-Smee, 1975b
Cites
Probability of shock in the presence and absence of cs in fear conditioning.
Rescorla, R. A. (1968) · Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0025984 · Cited by 1,067 · cited 5× · see citing works
“In fact Rescorla and Wagner (1972) discuss an initial learning effect according to which low levels of associative strength can be expected to accrue briefly to the background stimuli at all P(US/CS) levels during the first few learning trials. The apparent conflict between the data and the theory is therefore capable…”
BackgroundResultInfluential
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Phasic vs Sustained Fear in Rats and Humans: Role of the Extended Amygdala in Fear vs Anxiety
Davis, M., Walker, D. L., Miles, L., & Grillon, C. (2010) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2009.109 · Cited by 1,488 · see citing works
Models and mechanisms of anxiety: evidence from startle studies
Grillon, C. (2008) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-007-1019-1 · Cited by 456 · see citing works
Contextual fear conditioning in humans: cortical–hippocampal and amygdala contributions
Alvarez, R. P., Biggs, A., Chen, G., Pine, D. S., & Grillon, C. (2008) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1246-08.2008 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
Grillon, C., Baas, J. M. P., Cornwell, B., & Johnson, L. (2006) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.03.072 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Grillon, C., Baas, J. M. P., Pine, D. S., Lissek, S., Lawley, M., Ellis, V., & Levine, J. (2006) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.11.027 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Fanselow, M. S., Kim, J. J., Yipp, J., & De Oca, B. (1994) · Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.1037/0735-7044.108.2.235 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Sah, P., Westbrook, R. F., & Lüthi, A. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1417.020 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Contextual associations in trace conditioning
Marlin, N. A. (1981) · Animal Learning & Behavior · doi:10.3758/bf03209784 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Background Stimuli and the Inter-Stimulus Interval during Pavlovian Conditioning
Odling-Smee, F. J. (1975) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/14640747508400498 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Self-citationNicotine enhances both foreground and background contextual fear conditioning
Davis, J. A., Porter, J., & Gould, T. J. (2006) · Neuroscience Letters · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2005.10.026 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
- Authors
- Odling-Smee, F. J.
- Affiliations
- Brunel University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Odling-Smee, F. J.
- Venue
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1975-05
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 201-209
- ISSN
- 0033-555X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2073293082
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- classical conditioning, Rescorla-Wagner model, avoidance behavior, rats, associative learning
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Conditioning, Classical, Male, Reinforcement, Psychology, Rats
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
