Further evidence for the role of temporal contiguity as a determinant of overshadowing

• Published in: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) 2024-07, Vol.77 (7), p.1375-1389
• Main Authors: Alcalá, José A, Ogallar, Pedro M, Prados, José, Urcelay, Gonzalo P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Association Learning - physiology; Auditory Perception - physiology; Avoidance Learning - physiology; Cues; Female; Humans; Male; Original; Reaction Time - physiology; Time Factors; Time Perception - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1747-0218; 1747-0226; 1747-0226
• DOI: 10.1177/17470218231197170

Three experiments explored whether weakening temporal contiguity between auditory cues and an aversive outcome attenuated cue competition in an avoidance learning task with human participants. Overall, with strong temporal contiguity between auditory cues and the outcome during training (the offset of the predictive auditory signals concurred with the onset of the outcome), the target cue trained as part of a compound yielded less avoidance behaviour than the control cue trained alone, an instance of overshadowing. However, weakening temporal contiguity during training (inserting a 5-s trace) attenuated overshadowing, resulting in similar avoidance behaviour in response to the control and target cues. These results provide evidence that, as predicted by a recent modification of Pearce’s configural theory, temporal contiguity is critical for determining cue competition.