Conditioned inhibition, inhibitory learning, response inhibition, and inhibitory control: Outlining a conceptual clarification

Abstract

Inhibition can be defined as a phenomenon in which an agent prevents or suppresses a behavioral state that would otherwise occur. Associative learning studies have extensively examined how experiences shape the acquisition of inhibitory behavioral tendencies across many species and situations. Associative inhibitory phenomena can be studied at various levels of analysis. One could focus on the trajectory of behavioral change involved in learning from negative statistical associations between discrete events (inhibitory learning). Alternatively, one could be interested in the effects of accumulated experience with those negative associations (conditioned inhibition). One could rather be interested in how organisms implement what they learn through experiences involving negative associations (response inhibition). Yet one could inquire into how the capacity of learning negative associations and performing accordingly varies between individuals and along time for the same individual (inhibitory control). This paper presents a tentative taxonomy addressing different levels of analysis of associative inhibitory phenomena by using different terms for each. In addition, recent evidence and certain unresolved issues at each level are thoroughly scrutinized and contrasted with prior findings. The empirical and theoretical advances made by modeling inhibition as an associative learning phenomenon have provided scaffolds for the current knowledge and emerging accounts of the topic. Some of those emerging accounts have the potential to bridge different levels of analysis and foster “cross-pollination” of ideas among broad fields beyond associative learning.

Dual-system free-operant avoidance: extension of a theory

“…In the case of rewarded or positively reinforced behavior our dual-system theory (Perez & Dickinson, 2020) proposed that the habit system employed a standard prediction-error learning algorithm that, when applied to habit learning by a safety signal, should reflect the difference between the strength of Pavlovian inhibition elicited by the feedback stimuli at the time when a response is performed and the current habit strength. In the absence of an agreed theory of Pavlovian inhibitory learning (Sosa, 2022), however, the development of a computational theory of habitual avoidance learning would be highly arbitrary.…”

prePrint An Exploration of Relationships between Associative and Non- Associative Measures of Inhibition

“…Associative learning processes allow organisms to adapt to changes in the environment, and inhibitory associative learning is one way to conditionally modify previously learnt behaviours (see Sosa (2022) and Williams (1995) for reviews of inhibitory associative learning phenomena). Conditioned inhibition and negative occasion-setting are forms of associative inhibition that can be established when an organism learns that a specific stimulus signals the omission of an otherwise expected event as seen in a simple featurenegative (FN) procedure as follows.…”