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Rapid Extinction following Drug-inhibited Incidental Learning

Nature volume 214, pages 531–532 (1967)Cite this article

Abstract

SUTHERLAND'S1 explanation of the retarding effect of partial reward (PR) on extinction rests on the assumption that during acquisition, PR animals switch attention more often than consistently rewarded (CR) animals; PR animals therefore learn about more cues. During extinction, each animal must extinguish the responses to all the cues it has learned about during training, and the more cues learned the longer it should take to extinguish responses to them. This view is supported by studies showing that PR rats2 and doves3 do learn more about incidental cues than do CR animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford,

    B. MCGONIGLE, D. J. MCFARLAND & PAULINE COLLIER

Authors
  1. B. MCGONIGLE
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  2. D. J. MCFARLAND
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  3. PAULINE COLLIER
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MCGONIGLE, B., MCFARLAND, D. & COLLIER, P. Rapid Extinction following Drug-inhibited Incidental Learning. Nature 214, 531–532 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/214531a0

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