{"pk":5639,"title":"Inhibitory S-R Associations Influence the Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect (PREE) is the finding of more rapid extinction to a continuously reinforced cue than to a partially reinforced cue. Despite its well-documented existence, it has challenged many theoretical accounts of learning that assume the likelihood of responding is correlated with the strength of the learned Stimulus (S) – Response (R) association. While a number of explanations (notably by Amsel and Capaldi) of the PREE have been proposed, Rescorla (1999) reported a PREE using an entirely within-subjects design—a finding that runs counter to these proposed explanations. We describe how the PREE might be explained by the formation of inhibitory S-R associations that develop during the acquisition of partial reinforcement, but not continuous reinforcement. To test this proposal, we trained pigeons to peck a response key in the presence of one partially reinforced stimulus but also omitted the response key during the training of an alternative partially reinforced stimulus—thus preventing the development of inhibitory S-Rs to that latter stimulus. We found evidence for the PREE only for the partially reinforced stimulus where inhibitory S-Rs were capable of being formed, thus supporting our proposal. Alternative explanations of our procedure and its relevance to broader computational rules of learning is discussed.","language":"en","license":null,"keywords":[{"word":"instrumental conditioning"},{"word":"Law of Effect"},{"word":"habit"},{"word":"Pigeon"},{"word":"learning"}],"section":"Research Article","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h34z46z","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Benjamin","middle_name":"M","last_name":"Seitz","name_suffix":"","institution":"UCLA","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Aaron","middle_name":"P","last_name":"Blaisdell","name_suffix":"","institution":"UCLA","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2023-03-06T01:28:05Z","date_accepted":"2023-03-06T01:28:05Z","date_published":"2024-04-03T16:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"Seitz_Final_pdf","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/uclapsych_ijcp/article/5639/galley/10313/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"Seitz_Final_pdf","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/uclapsych_ijcp/article/5639/galley/10313/download/"}]}