The effects of CS intensity on the initial excitatory conditioning resulting from the truly random control procedure in rats

The approach-withdrawal behaviour of pigeons to a red keylight was measured under three conditions; a negative contingency (NC) between keylight and food reinforcement, a CI or conditioned inhibition procedure where the keylight was non-reinforced in compound with a tone which was reinforced when presented alone, and a random control procedure (RC). The keylight-food contingencies in CI and NC were identical, and keylight and food presentation frequency were the same in all conditions. Subsequently the effect of adding the red keylight to a novel CS+ during or after excitatory conditioning was examined (summation test of inhibition). The inhibitory procedures, CI and NC, generally yielded similar functions for the acquisition of withdrawal, and the results of the withdrawal and summation measures were positively correlated. The implications of the results for theories of the acquisition and behavioural action of conditioned inhibitors are discussed.

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Effect of removing background white noise during CS presentation on conditioning in the truly random control procedure

Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society ◽

10.3758/bf03333134 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 25-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Elizabeth S. Witcher ◽

John J. B. Ayres

Keyword(s):

White Noise ◽

Control Procedure ◽

Background White Noise ◽

Random Control

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Truly Random Control Group in Pavlovian Conditioning of Planaria (Dugesia Dorotocephala)

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1979.45.3.987 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 987-992 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Moshe J. Levison ◽

Edward I. Gavurin

Keyword(s):

Pavlovian Conditioning ◽

Trace Conditioning ◽

Control Group ◽

Excitatory Conditioning ◽

Conditioning Group ◽

Conditioning Procedure ◽

Control Groups ◽

Random Group ◽

Dugesia Dorotocephala ◽

Random Control

Both Jensen (1965) and Dyal (1973) have called for the introduction of the truly random control group in studies of planaria to provide an appropriate baseline against which to evaluate the associative effects of CS-US pairings. Accordingly, an experiment was performed comparing a Pavlovian excitatory conditioning group both with the traditional unpaired control group and a Rescorla truly random group. Three conditions were compared (six planaria in each) using a trace conditioning procedure (3-sec. light CS followed by a 1-sec. shock US). The major results of the experiment were that (a) the Pavlovian excitatory group showed an increase in performance only for the contraction CR measure, (b) head turns and combined CR measures showed only decreases or no changes in performance in any of the groups; (c) the performance of the truly random control group was between the Pavlovian excitatory and unpaired control groups, providing support for the notion that the latter is not truly a control condition but an inhibitory one.

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