Extinction of goal tracking also eliminates the conditioned reinforcing effects of an appetitive conditioned stimulus

David N. Kearns, Brendan J. Tunstall, Katherine R. Marks, Stanley J. Weiss

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that the effects of extinction are response-specific. The present study investigated whether an extinction treatment that eliminated goal tracking elicited by an appetitive conditioned stimulus (CS) would also eliminate the conditioned reinforcing effects of that CS. Rats were first trained on a goal-tracking procedure in which an auditory CS was paired with a food unconditioned stimulus. Animals learned to approach the location where the food was delivered. In a subsequent phase, rats in one group received extinction training that eliminated the goal-tracking elicited by the CS. Rats in the other group did not experience extinction of the food-paired CS. Then, both groups received a test for conditioned reinforcement in which leverpresses resulted in the brief presentation of the stimulus previously paired with food. This stimulus did not act as a conditioned reinforcer in the group that had been subjected to extinction training, but did serve as a conditioned reinforcer in the group that did not experience extinction. These results indicate that the effects of extinction generalize from the approach-eliciting to the conditioned reinforcing effects of an appetitive CS.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)135-138
Number of pages4
JournalPsychonomic Bulletin and Review
Volume19
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by Award Number R01DA008651 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health.

Keywords

  • Conditioned reinforcement
  • Extinction
  • Goal tracking
  • Rats

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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