ONTOGENIC DIFFERENCES IN CONDITIONING TO CONTEXT AND CS AS A FUNCTIONOF CONTEXT SALIENCY AND CS-US INTERVAL

A series of experiments examined ontogenetically the effects of contex t saliency and CS-US interval on the learning of CS-US and context-US associations. Although adult rats generally showed an inverse relation ship between CS and context learning that depended upon CS-US interval and context saliency, the opposite relationship held for preweanlings . Consistent with many contemporary learning theories, adult rats expr essed CS-context competition in learning about the US. Preweanlings, o n the other hand, exhibited potentiated responding to either the conte xt or the CS as a result of strong learning about the other element. T hese results suggest that adult and infant rats process information in a qualitatively different manner.