THE ROLE OF TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE TRANSFER OF CONDITIONED INHIBITION

Two experiments with rats investigated the temporal relationships unde r which conditioned inhibition will transfer to an independently condi tioned exciter (CS) in a summation test. Experiment 1 trained 2 simult aneous inhibitors with either a trace or delay excitatory CS. Transfer of inhibitory behavioral control depended on the temporal relationshi p of the transfer CS to the unconditioned stimulus (US). Experiment 2 extended these findings by training 2 inhibitors (1 simultaneous and 1 serial) with a single delay excitatory CS. Again, testing with trace and delay transfer CSs found that transfer of inhibitor control depend ed on the temporal relationship of the transfer CS to the US. In both studies, maximal inhibition was observed when the inhibitor signaled U S omission at the same time as the transfer exciter signaled US presen tation. The results are discussed in terms of the temporal coding hypo thesis.