Temporal and Associative Aspects of Pavlovian Learning

描述(由申请人提供)：本项目的总体目标是 了解时间如何影响巴甫洛夫式的学习，即基础学习 人类和动物学习将信号与 具有重大生物学意义的事件。条件反射的研究在一定程度上是重要的。 因为它与许多精神疾病的发展(和治疗)密切相关 健康问题，包括(但不限于)药物依赖和焦虑 精神错乱。许多拟议的实验将在 实验室大鼠，将区分两种不同的想法 巴甫洛夫式的学习作品：强调学习重要性的观点 “试验”(有或无信号出现的场合) 重大事件)和另一种忽略试验并强调 生物体对重大事件呈现之间的时间的感知。 这些想法和其他想法将在许多实验中进行对比。许多 实验将调查试验间隔在捕获中的影响， 而其他人将研究学习过程中试验间隔的影响 旨在取代旧的治疗方法(消退和反条件作用) 在新的学习中学习。所有这些都将揭示“优化”的条件。 通过让它变得坚固和耐用来学习。其他实验将比较 时间流逝和背景变化的影响，以及其他 研究辨别不同性别差异的心理过程 时间间隔。这一结果将增加我们对 时间和记忆对条件反射的影响，将有助于揭示 计时和联想学习之间的相互关系。许多结果都是 也将增加我们对治疗后复发原因的了解，并 建议帮助防止或尽量减少复发的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The general goal of this project is to understand how time influences Pavlovian learning, the fundamental learning process in which humans and animals learn to associate signals with biologically significant events. The study of conditioning is important in part because it is deeply involved in the development (and treatment) of many mental health problems, including (but not limited to) drug dependence and anxiety disorders. Many of the proposed experiments, which will be conducted with laboratory rats, will distinguish between two different ideas about how Pavlovian learning works: A view that emphasizes the importance of learning "trials" (occasions on which the signal occurs either with or without the significant event) and another view that ignores trials and emphasizes the organism's perception of time between presentations of the significant event. These ideas and others will be contrasted in number of experiments. Many experiments will investigate the effects of trial spacing in acquisition, whereas others will investigate the effects of trial spacing during learning treatments (extinction and counter conditioning) designed to replace old learning with new learning. All will uncover conditions that "optimize" learning by making it strong and durable. Other experiments will compare the effects of the passage of time and contextual change, and others will investigate the psychological processes involved in discriminating different temporal intervals. The results will increase our understanding of the influence of time and memory on conditioning, and will help reveal the interrelationships between timing and associative learning. Many of the results will also increase our understanding of the causes of relapse after therapy and suggest ways to help prevent or minimize that relapse.