STIMULUS CHANGE, REVERSAL LEARNING, AND RETENTION IN RAT

In Exp. I, changing contextual cues between acquisition and reversal of a T maze task with 28 naive Sprague-Dawley female albino rats: (1) facilitated reversal in Ss when relatively spaced practice was used, and (2) protected long-term retention of the reversal response from possible proactive interference. In Exp. II with 20 naive Sprague-Dawley female albino rats, initial associations were shown to be retained through reversal given under the stimulus-change condition, indicating that the transfer and retention effects observed in both experiments reflect stimulus effects in the control of interference processes. The compatibility of the data with interference and stimulus-fluctuation theories is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.