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Training history affects magnitude
of spontaneous recovery from extinction of appetitive conditioned
responding. Three experiments examined spontaneous recovery from extinction of appetitive conditioned responding as a function of training history. Rats were first trained in a conditioning procedure consisting of tone-no-food and/or tone-food trials, with magazine approach behaviour as the conditioned response. Groups of rats were equated for total number of tone-food trials but differed in the number of tone-no-food trials, or in the order of these trial types. Conditioned responding to the tone was then extinguished in all groups in two sessions. Subsequently, the extent of recovery of conditioned responding was assessed in a non-reinforced test session performed either 1 or 17 days after the last extinction session. After a 17-day delay, rats that had received all reinforced trials immediately prior to the first extinction session showed stronger recovery than did rats having received all reinforced trials at the beginning of training, or interspersed among non-reinforced trials. No significant spontaneous recovery was observed after a 1-day test delay. These results, which may be of clinical relevance with respect to relapse after therapy, are explained in terms of the training schedules generating differences in strength of inhibitory associations, and a relatively long, but not a short, test delay attenuating these associations. Keywords: spontaneous recovery, training history, test interval, appetitive conditioning, rats |
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