Lack of evidence for inhibitory processes in over-selectivity

Reynolds, Gemma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2893-6380, Watts, J. and Reed, P. (2012) Lack of evidence for inhibitory processes in over-selectivity. Behavioural Processes, 89 (1) . pp. 14-22. ISSN 0376-6357 [Article] (doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2011.09.008)

Abstract

Stimulus over-selectivity can be defined as control over behavior being exerted by one aspect of the environment at the expense of other equally salient aspects of the environment, and is a common problem for discrimination learning under conditions of cognitive strain, and in intellectual disorders. Non-clinical participants exposed to a concurrent task load were trained and tested on a two-component trial-and error discrimination task to investigate whether inhibition plays a role in producing under-selectivity by using both summation and retardation tests. Experiment 1 found evidence for the over-selectivity effect, and replicated the finding that revaluation of a previously over-selected stimulus allows emergence of control by a previous under-selected stimulus, despite the latter stimulus receiving no direct conditioning. The under-selected cue was not found to gain any conditioned inhibitory status, as reflected by summation (Experiment 2), and retardation (Experiment 3), tests. The results extend the literature explaining over-selectivity as a post-acquisition failure.

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