Recovery from one-trial overshadowing

Prevailing models of associative learning can all account for multitrial ov ershadowing. However, they fail to account for one-trial overshadowing, whi ch is ordinarily explained in terms of distraction of the subject by the mo re salient of two simultaneously trained cues from the less salient cue, wh ich interferes with associative acquisition. In the present study, we demon strate that recovery from overshadowing can be obtained through two techniq ues that have previously been found to restore responding to overshadowed c ues in multitrial training situations. Specifically, recovery from one-tria l overshadowing was obtained by extinguishing the overshadowing stimulus an d also by administering a posttraining reminder treatment consisting of bri ef exposure to the overshadowed cue. The similarity of these observations t o those in multitrial overshadowing suggests that one-trial and multitrial overshadowing arise from a common underlying mechanism and further augments the view that all cue competition is due (at least in part) to a failure t o express acquired information, rather than to a failure to learn.