Extinction and Recovery in Associative Learning

这个项目关注的是理解灭绝，即学习能力的丧失， 当一个巴甫洛夫信号或一个工具性动作被反复呈现而没有其 - 好的灭绝是一种自然发生的行为改变过程，也是一种工具， 在旨在消除不必要的想法，情绪和行为的临床治疗中， 人类尽管人们很容易认为灭绝会抹去最初的学习， 熄灭的性能容易恢复，并且几种恢复效果（例如，更新， 恢复，快速重新获取，自发恢复和复苏）表明， 原始学习可能基本上完好无损。此外，由于这些影响可以解释为 改变背景或“环境”的影响，他们认为灭绝是由新的 抑制性学习，对学习的环境特别敏感。的目标 这个项目是为了寻求一个完整的理解灭绝，因为它是揭示在这些， 其他响应恢复过程。它将特别关注工具性的灭绝， （操作性）学习，因为操作性学习的原则对于理解一个范围至关重要 的行为问题，如滥用药物，吸烟，暴饮暴食，其中自愿 与调解人的接触起着至关重要的作用。这些实验将以老鼠为实验对象。 一组将测试老鼠在灭绝过程中学会主动抑制其行为的证据， 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， 复发和其他类型的行为改变。第三组将分析学习和灭绝 行为的序列或“链”，其中个人必须购买（或获得）访问 第四组实验将测试 关于复发和预防复发的新假设，当老鼠学会抑制一种 他们为了接受静脉注射可卡因而做出的反应。结果会增加 我们对灭绝的理解，一种基本的行为和临床现象， 开发新的方法来帮助促进消退学习，以尽量减少失误和复发。

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.