Transfer of Responding during Serial Conditioning in the Rat

Abstract

In three experiments rats were conditioned with the sequence tone-light-food. In the first experiment the source of the light was a bulb located on the wall of the conditioning chamber. Serial conditioning resulted in subjects approaching the bulb during the tone, even though it was not illuminated. The strength of this activity was greater when the tone was intermittently rather than consistently followed by the light. For Experiments 2 and 3 the source of the light was placed in the food magazine, and this resulted in greater magazine activity during the tone when it was intermittently rather than consistently paired with the light. It is suggested that the level of orientation to the light during the tone is, in part, a reflection of the amount of attention paid to the tone. It is further suggested that the tone receives more attention when it is an inaccurate rather than accurate predictor of its consequences.