Context-specific interference on reversal learning of a stimulus-response habit

Learning occurs in a particular place and time. In most learning situations , information about the training context is encoded along with the task dem ands and solution, However, the extent to which context contributes to the acquisition and expression of a particular learned response is unclear. In the present paper we examined two fundamental issues underlying the importa nce of context information and its role in expression of discrimination lea rning and reversal learning. Rats were trained on a stimulus-response (S-R) habit task designed for the eight-arm radial maze and after reaching a set criterion different context manipulations were performed. Results from Sec tion 2.2.1 revealed that although rats detected a change in context, the le arning was not context specific. Results from Section 2.2.1 showed that S-R reversal learning was enhanced when animals were reversed in a context tha t was different from the one used during original training. Animals that we re reversed in a different context showed a renewal effect to the initial S -R when brought back to the original training context. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.