Protection From Latent Inhibition Provided by a Conditioned Inhibitor

Two conditioned suppression experiments with rats investigated the influence on latent inhibition of compounding a Pavlovian conditioned inhibitor with the tar get cue during preexposure treatment Results were compared with those of subjects that received conventional latent inhibition training, no preexposure. or preexposure to the target cue in compound with it neutral Stimulus In Experiment 1, greater attenuation of the latent inhibition effect was observed in subjects that received target preexposure in compound with a Pavlovian conditioned inhibitor relative to subjects that received preexposure with a neutral stimulus or to the target alone. In Experiment 2, this protection from latent inhibition was attenuated if the excitor that was used to train the conditioned inhibitor was extinguished between preexposure and target training The results are consistent with an account offered by the extended comparator hypothesis