Retrospective revaluation effects following serial compound training and target extinction

Using a conditioned suppression task, two experiments examined retrospective revaluation effects after serial compound training in a release from overshadowing design. In Experiment 1, serial X → A+ training produced suppression to target A, which was enhanced when preceded by feature X, whereas X by itself elicited no suppression. Subsequent A− presentations extinguished responding to A, but had no effect on either responding to X → A or X alone. However, the addition of A− trials did enhance the ability of feature X to elicit suppression to a novel target, B, suggesting retrospective revaluation of X’s properties. Experiment 2 showed that the enhanced transfer effect, observed in Experiment 1, was independent of the training history of the target (B− or Y → B+/B−). Together, these results suggest that feature X did not retrospectively acquire excitatory strength or occasion setting power, but rather a generalized ability to increase responding to any other cue.