ROLE OF PRIMARY MOTIVATION IN STIMULUS PREEXPOSURE EFFECTS

It is currently a matter of debate whether the deficit in conditioning observed after stimulus preexposure is one of acquisition or one of p erformance. The major criticism of performance-based theories is their inability to specify what is learned during nonreinforced preexposure that may influence subsequent acquisition of conditioned responding. Experiments 1 and 2 used an excitatory appetitive conditioning procedu re and Experiment 3 used an inhibitory appetitive conditioning procedu re, with rats as subjects, and consistently found that the effects of preexposure to a stimulus transferred to conditioning only when the re inforcer was relevant to the motivational state in which that preexpos ure was conducted. This finding suggests that during preexposure, rats learn that a stimulus is unrelated to events of relevance to their cu rrent motivational state.