Wa. Falls et M. Davis, INHIBITION OF FEAR-POTENTIATED STARTLE CAN BE DETECTED AFTER THE OFFSET OF A FEATURE TRAINED IN A SERIAL FEATURE-NEGATIVE DISCRIMINATION, Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 23(1), 1997, pp. 3-14
Using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm in rats, 4 experiments exa
mined whether the inhibitory effect of a feature is evident after its
offset following serial feature-negative discrimination training (A+ a
nd X-->A-). When startle probes were presented shortly after the offse
t of X on X-->A test trials, the inhibitory properties of X were obser
ved immediately after its offset. Furthermore, trace reinforcement of
X (X-->+), but not delay reinforcement (X+), disrupted the ability of
X to inhibit fear-potentiated startle on X-->A trials. Trace condition
ing to X was also retarded after A+ and X-->A- training. These results
suggest that the inhibitory properties of the serially trained featur
e are present after its offset and raise the possibility that either t
emporal information regarding nonreinforcement or poststimulus attribu
tes of X acquire inhibitory properties.