Extinction and Recovery in Associative Learning

这个项目关注的是理解灭绝，习得性表现的丧失 当重复呈现巴甫洛夫信号或工具动作而没有其 增强剂。灭绝是一个自然发生的行为变化过程，也是一种使用的工具 在临床治疗中，旨在消除患者不需要的想法、情绪和行为 人类。尽管人们很容易认为物种灭绝会抹去原始的学习， 熄灭的性能很容易恢复，以及几种恢复效果(例如，更新， 恢复、快速重新获得、自发恢复和复苏)表明 最初的学习可能基本完好无损。此外，因为这些影响可以被解读为 改变背景或“背景”的影响，他们认为物种灭绝是由新的 对学习环境特别敏感的抑制性学习。的目标是 这个项目是为了寻求对灭绝的综合理解，因为它在这些和 其他响应-恢复过程。它将特别关注器乐的灭绝。 (操作式)学习，因为操作式学习的原则对于理解范围至关重要 行为问题--如滥用药物、吸烟和暴饮暴食--自愿 与增强剂的接触起着至关重要的作用。实验将以大鼠为实验对象。 其中一组将测试老鼠在灭绝期间学会主动抑制其行为的证据，以及 将评估这种抑制是如何习得的。另一组将区分 目标导向的行动和自动习惯，并会问他们对灭绝有多敏感， 复发，以及其他类型的行为改变。第三组将分析人类的学习和灭绝 个人必须购买(或获得)访问的行为序列或“链” 在他或她可以食用(或“服用”)之前，他或她的增强剂。第四组实验将测试 关于复发和预防复发的新假说，当大鼠学习抑制一种 他们为了接受静脉注射可卡因而做出的反应。结果将会增加 我们对灭绝这一基本的行为和临床现象的理解，以及 开发新的方法来帮助促进灭绝学习，以最大限度地减少失误和复发。

This project is concerned with understanding extinction, the loss of learned performance that occurs when a Pavlovian signal or an instrumental action is repeatedly presented without its reinforcer. Extinction is a naturally-occurring process of behavior change, as well as a tool used in clinical treatments designed to eliminate unwanted thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in humans. Although it is tempting to assume that extinction erases the original learning, extinguished performance readily recovers, and several recovery effects (e.g., renewal, reinstatement, rapid reacquisition, spontaneous recovery, and resurgence) indicate that the original learning may be largely intact. In addition, because these effects can be interpreted as effects of changing the background or “context,” they suggest that extinction results from new inhibitory learning that is especially sensitive to the context in which it is learned. The goal of this project is to seek an integrated understanding of extinction as it is revealed in these and other response-recovery processes. It will focus especially on the extinction of instrumental (operant) learning, because principles of operant learning are crucial for understanding a range of behavior problems—such as drug abuse, smoking, and overeating—in which voluntary contact with reinforcers plays an essential role. The experiments will involve rats as subjects. One set will test evidence that the rat learns to actively inhibit its behavior during extinction, and will evaluate an account of how that inhibition is learned. Another set will distinguish between goal-directed actions and automatic habits, and will ask how sensitive they are to extinction, relapse, and other types of behavior change. A third set will analyze learning and extinction of sequences or “chains” of behavior in which the individual must purchase (or procure) access to the reinforcer before he or she can consume (or “take”) it. A fourth set of experiments will test new hypotheses about relapse and the prevention of relapse when rats learn to inhibit a response they perform in order to receive intravenous cocaine delivery. The results will increase our understanding of extinction, a fundamental behavioral and clinical phenomenon, and develop new ways to help promote extinction learning so as to minimize lapse and relapse.