Explorations with conditioned stimuli in autoshaping procedures

Abstract

Sign-tracking is a form of autoshaping where by animals reliably develop conditioned responses toward stimuli that predict an outcome. While the assignment of some value to a predictive cue may be adaptive (i.e., to be alerted to food and water sources), the attribution of value to predictive cues can be maladaptive as seen in behaviors elicited during addiction. Here we test if responding to the predictive cue changes in the context of other cues that are only partially predictive (Experiment 1). Previous work on sequential cues leading to reward have shown a bias in responding toward the first cue in the sequence over learning (Smedley and Smith 2018a, 2018b). Here we test if this effect is unique to discrete cues or if a bias in responding can be seen in a single, long cue (Experiment 2). Finally, we investigate if sign-tracking responses can reliably develop towards a cue that arrives after the delivery of reward (backwards conditioning, Experiment 3). Together, we aim to address various gaps in knowledge about the nature of the sign-tracking response.