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NEURAL TIMING MECHANISMS, CONDITIONING, AND THE CS‐UCS INTERVAL
Author(s) -
Prescott James W.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1965.tb03256.x
Subject(s) - conditioning , classical conditioning , psychology , reinforcement , unconditioned stimulus , stimulus (psychology) , interval (graph theory) , context (archaeology) , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , social psychology , mathematics , statistics , paleontology , combinatorics , biology
The history of GSR Classical conditioning studies on the optimal CS‐UCS interval has been evaluated in the context of the phenomena of internal inhibition of delay HD, an effect of delayed reinforcement. It was concluded from this review that nearly all GSR studies concerned with this theoretical issue lack validity since responses to stimulus onset orienting and unconditioned responses and not delayed conditioned responses have been the subject of measurement. The existence of an “optimal” CS‐UCS interval is questionable, however, and appropriate experimental methodology is suggested for the solution of this problem. The role of temporal processes in classical conditioning has been emphasized and the concept of “precision” in neural timing mechanisms mediating delayed CRs has been advanced. It is suggested that the neural temporal properties of the conditioning process have greater heuristic value than the intensity properties of the conditioned response.