Within-compound associations in serial compound conditioning

Conducted 3 experiments with 80 Sprague-Dawley rats in which presentation of a light-tone-food serial compound in Exp I gave the light the ability to evoke a conditioned behavior (head jerk, HJ) usually elicited only by auditory conditioned stimuli (CSs). Exps II and III indicated that the occurrence of HJ to the light was related to the formation of light-tone associations. In Exp II, extinction of the tone alone after light-tone serial compound conditioning eliminated the light's ability to evoke only HJ behavior in subsequent light-alone testing. Extinction of the light alone after light-tone conditioning reduced the tone's ability to evoke HJs in subsequent tone-alone testing. Exp III replicated the findings of Exp II in a within-Ss design: The depressive effects of light or tone extinction were specific to responding evoked by stimuli with which the extinguished stimuli had been paired previously. Acquisition of HJ behavior to visual CSs in visual-auditory serial compound conditioning was facilitated if the elements of the compound were similar in presentation mode. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).