Polack Cody W, Molet Mikael, Miguez Gonzalo, Miller Ralph R
State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, USA.
Learn Behav. 2013 Dec;41(4):443-54. doi: 10.3758/s13420-013-0119-5.
According to the temporal-coding hypothesis (TCH; Savastano & Miller, Behavioural Processes 44:147-162, 1998), acquired associations include temporal information concerning the interval between the associated elements. Moreover, the TCH posits that subjects can integrate two independently acquired associations that share a common element (e.g., S2-S1 and S1-US), which results in the creation of a third association with its own temporal relationship (S2-US). Some evidence has suggested that such temporal integration occurs at the time of testing (Molet, Miguez, Cham, & Miller, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 38:369-380, 2012). Here we report two fear-conditioning experiments with rats conducted to identify the associative structure of the integrated temporal relationship. The goal was to distinguish between two possible associative structures that could exist following an initial test on which temporal integration occurs: (1) Conditioned responding to S2 on subsequent tests could be the result of recurring successive activation of two independently learned temporal maps that remain independently stored in memory (i.e., S2-S1 plus S1-US). (2) Temporal integration at the moment of initial testing could result in the formation of a direct S2-US (or S2-response) temporal map. Integration was found to occur at test and to produce a new association that was independent of associations with the common element (S1). However, the associative status of S1 appeared to modulate whether or not the new association with S2 was US-specific (S2-US) or directly activated a fear response (S2-response).
根据时间编码假说（TCH；萨瓦斯塔诺和米勒，《行为过程》44:147 - 162，1998），习得的关联包括有关相关元素之间间隔的时间信息。此外，时间编码假说假定，主体能够整合两个独立习得的、共享一个共同元素的关联（例如，S2 - S1和S1 - US），这会导致创建一个具有自身时间关系的第三个关联（S2 - US）。一些证据表明，这种时间整合发生在测试时（莫莱特、米格斯、钱和米勒，《实验心理学杂志：动物行为过程》38:369 - 380，2012）。在此，我们报告了两项对大鼠进行的恐惧条件反射实验，旨在确定整合后的时间关系的关联结构。目标是区分在首次出现时间整合的测试之后可能存在的两种可能的关联结构：（1）在后续测试中对S2的条件反应可能是两个独立学习的时间图谱反复连续激活的结果，这两个图谱仍独立存储在记忆中（即，S2 - S1加上S1 - US）。（2）首次测试时的时间整合可能导致形成直接的S2 - US（或S2 - 反应）时间图谱。研究发现，整合发生在测试时，并产生了一个独立于与共同元素（S1）的关联的新关联。然而，S1的关联状态似乎调节了与S2的新关联是特定于US（S2 - US）还是直接激活恐惧反应（S2 - 反应）。
