Reversal training facilitates acquisition of new learning in a Morris water maze

Abstract

Two experiments determined the effect of interference training on subsequent spatial learning in a Morris water maze. Rats first learned that a platform was located in a quadrant marked by landmarks A and B. Different groups of rats either continued or reversed that training. In the reversal condition the platform was opposite to the initially trained quadrant. On test, a new cue, C, was added and the platform was located in the new AC quadrant. Rats that had received the reversal training learned the location of the new platform faster than rats trained with the same platform throughout. In Experiment 2, phase 1 training was conducted by placing the rats on the platforms to ensure that they were located. Experimental rats received a reversal of the platform position in phase 2. A control group received training with both platforms present, and thus had experience with each. When the platform was then located in the new AC quadrant the rats that received reversal training learned the new location faster than those without reversal training. Results are discussed in terms of the effect of interference on the arousal of general attention.

Concurrent evidence of extinction making acquisition context specific and ABA and ABC renewal effects in human predictive learning.

“…This interpretation agrees with the idea that the ambiguity that extinction produces in the organism would lead to a general increase in attention (e.g., Schmajuk et al, 1996) through the engagement of the attentional exploratory mechanism (Le Pelley et al, 2016) in a search for the elements that allow the organism to solve the uncertainty that the ambiguous situation produces. According to these interpretations, the context-switch effect could be considered like a side effect of a wider phenomenon that, under an ambiguity situation, facilitates subsequent learning about contexts, as shown in this experimental series, but also about different tasks and procedures that were not part of the original learning, such as it has been recently reported in the literature (Alcalá et al, 2019; Alcalá et al, 2020; González et al, 2019; see also Rosas & Nelson, 2019).…”

Context dependency as a Function of Prediction Error-Based Attention

“…Similarly, Liberman (1951) showed that extinction of one response (runway running or lever pressing) facilitated the acquisition of the other. Recently, we have shown that a discrimination reversal in a water maze facilitated learning a new, third, platform location (Alcalá, Callejas-Aguilera, Nelson, & Rosas, 2019). A variety of results suggest that ambiguity produced by extinction or some other interference treatment arouses attention more generally, not simply to contexts.…”

Discrimination reversal facilitates subsequent acquisition of temporal discriminations in rats’ appetitive conditioning.

“…In rats, Shanab and Cotton (1970) found that extinction of runway running facilitated a subsequently learned T-maze discrimination. Alcalá, Callejas-Aguilera, Nelson, and Rosas (2019) found that rats that had an interference experience learned faster about the new location of a hidden platform in a water maze. De la Casa, Mena, Ruiz-Salas, Quintero, and Papini (2018) found that the experience of reward devaluation attenuated subsequent latent inhibition in a fear conditioning paradigm.…”

“…This seems to be the case in the studies summarized within the previous paragraph. Unfortunately, most of the studies that report facilitation of new learning after interference compared a group that received the interference treatment with a group that received simple training, rather than with a naïve group (Alcalá et al, 2019; De la Casa et al, 2018; González et al, 2019; Nelson et al, 2018). This design feature allows for an explanation of the results in terms of attenuation of the retardation of learning that otherwise would appear as a consequence of the previous experience of acquisition, rather than in terms of uncertainty facilitating subsequent learning.…”