DIFFERENTIAL RABBIT EYELID CONDITIONING AS A FUNCTION OF AGE, INTERSTIMULUS INTERVAL, AND CUE SIMILARITY

Investigated the effects of cue similarity, interstimulus interval (ISI), and age on the differential conditioning of the rabbit eyelid response with several response measures including rate of conditioning, differential responding performance, and generalization gradients about St. 127 male New Zealand rabbits were Ss. Increasing similarity of S+ and S- produced slower rates of conditioning, poorer differential responding performance, steeper generalization gradients, and smaller and longer latency CRs. Longer ISIs produced better differential responding only when the discrimination task was difficult and the Ss mature. In comparison with older Ss, younger Ss had a longer latency CR, conditioned more rapidly at longer ISIs when there was little ambiguity about the appropriate S+, and showed poorer differential performance at the longer ISIs in a difficult discrimination task (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.