Associative foundation of causal learning in rats.

Learning & Behavior
Cody W PolackRalph R Miller

Abstract

Are humans unique in their ability to interpret exogenous events as causes? We addressed this question by observing the behavior of rats for indications of causal learning. Within an operant motor-sensory preconditioning paradigm, associative surgical techniques revealed that rats attempted to control an outcome (i.e., a potential effect) by manipulating a potential exogenous cause (i.e., an intervention). Rats were able to generate an innocuous auditory stimulus. This stimulus was then paired with an aversive stimulus. The animals subsequently avoided potential generation of the predictive cue, but not if the aversive stimulus was subsequently devalued or the predictive cue was extinguished (Exp. 1). In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that the aversive stimulus we used was in fact aversive, that it was subject to devaluation, that the cue-aversive stimulus pairings did make the cue a conditioned stimulus, and that the cue was subject to extinction. In Experiments 3 and 4, we established that the decrease in leverpressing observed in Experiment 1 was goal-directed instrumental behavior rather than purely a product of Pavlovian conditioning. To the extent that interventions suggest causal reasoning, it appears that causal reasonin...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 9, 2004·Clinical Neurophysiology : Official Journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology·Albena DimitrovaDagmar Timmann
Jun 7, 2005·Journal of Affective Disorders·Tracy L GreerLucien T Thompson
Oct 18, 2000·European Journal of Pharmacology·R D BrintonE A Brownson
Jan 26, 2002·Behavioural Brain Research·W T O'BrienR J Servatius
Jul 2, 2002·Behavioural Processes·Steve Reilly, Richard P. Grutzmacher
Dec 15, 2017·Journal of Cheminformatics·Samuel BoobierJohn B O Mitchell
Nov 20, 2013·Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior·Simon Dymond
Dec 24, 2017·Behavioural Processes·Ralph R Miller, Cody W Polack

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