Blazis D E, Moore J W
Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003.
Behav Brain Res. 1991 Apr 18;43(1):73-8. doi: 10.1016/s0166-4328(05)80054-3.
In classical trace conditioning, the interstimulus interval (ISI) is equal to the conditioned stimulus (CS) duration plus the trace interval (TI), the interval between CS offset and unconditioned stimulus (US) onset. The Sutton-Barto-Desmond neural-network model of classical conditioning predicts that, with a sufficiently long TI, conditioning will be faster with a CS of relatively long duration than with one of shorter duration. This prediction is illustrated with simulations and tested with the rabbit nictitating membrane response. Animals were trained with a tone CS of 350- or 700-ms duration. The TI was fixed at 300 ms, so that the ISI for the two durations was 650 or 1000 ms, respectively. Another factor in the experimental design was tone intensity (63 or 83 dB). Consistent with the model's prediction, conditioning was faster with the longer ISI, but only with the louder tone. The results have implications for computational models of classical conditioning.
在经典痕迹条件反射中，刺激间隔（ISI）等于条件刺激（CS）的持续时间加上痕迹间隔（TI），即CS结束与非条件刺激（US）开始之间的间隔。经典条件反射的萨顿-巴托-德斯蒙德神经网络模型预测，在TI足够长的情况下，持续时间相对较长的CS比持续时间较短的CS的条件反射速度更快。这一预测通过模拟得到说明，并在兔瞬膜反应实验中得到验证。用持续时间为350毫秒或700毫秒的纯音CS对动物进行训练。TI固定为300毫秒，因此两种持续时间的ISI分别为650毫秒或1000毫秒。实验设计中的另一个因素是纯音强度（63或83分贝）。与模型预测一致，ISI较长时条件反射速度更快，但仅在纯音强度较大时如此。这些结果对经典条件反射的计算模型具有启示意义。
