Work

Experimental renewal in human participants.

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: Two experiments with human participants are presented that differentiate renewal from other behavioral effects that can produce a response after extinction. Participants played a video game and learned to suppress their behavior when sensor stimuli predicted an attack. Contexts (A, B, & C) were provided by fictitious galaxies where the game play took place. In Experiment 1, participants who received conditioning in A, extinction in B, and testing in A showed some context specificity of conditioning during extinction and a recovery of suppression on test. Experiment 2 demonstrated recovery of extinguished responding when participants were conditioned in A, extinguished in B, and tested in C, a third, neutral context. The experiment also demonstrated that the context of extinction did not control performance by becoming inhibitory. Results are discussed in terms of mechanisms that can produce a response recovery after extinction. The experiments demonstrated a renewal effect: a response recovery that was not attributable to the contexts acting as simple conditioned stimuli and is the first work with human participants to conclusively do so.

Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Behavior Processes

DOI: 10.1037/a0020519

Authors: James Byron Nelson, María del Carmen Sanjuan, Sandra Vadillo-Ruiz, Joana Pérez, Samuel P. León

Institutions: University of the Basque Country, Universidad de Jaén

Language: English

Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, European Social Fund

Awards: G1827264145, G2694644117, G4035277801, G5195670619, G5998145642