Negative priming in associative learning: evidence from a serial-conditioning procedure.

Three experiments investigated the suggestion that a predicted or primed stimulus commands less processing and consequently elicits a weaker conditioned response (CR) than a stimulus that is not primed. In each experiment rats received initial training in which the presentation of each of 2 serial compounds, A-X and B-Y, was followed by the delivery of food. Subsequently, X's capacity to elicit the CR, approaching the site of food delivery, was assessed when X was preceded by Stimulus A (i.e., primed) or was presented after Stimulus B. Stimulus X elicited a more vigorous response when it was presented after B than when it followed A. These results show that the ability of one event to elicit its CR is reduced if its presentation has been predicted by some other event. This negative priming effect supports one aspect of Wagner's (1981) model of Pavlovian conditioning.