Authors: Karolina Moutsopoulou Florian Waszak
Publish Date: 2013/03/02
Volume: 226, Issue: 3, Pages: 373-382
Abstract
It has been shown that in associative learning it is possible to disentangle the effects caused on behaviour by the associations between a stimulus and a classification S–C and the associations between a stimulus and the action performed towards it S–A Such evidence has been provided using exGaussian distribution analysis to show that different parameters of the reaction time distribution reflect the different processes Here using this method we investigate another difference between these two types of associations What is the relative durability of these associations across time Using a taskswitching paradigm and by manipulating the lag between the point of the creation of the associations and the test phase we show that S–A associations have stronger effects on behaviour when the lag between the two repetitions of a stimulus is short However classification learning affects behaviour not only in shortterm lags but also and equally so when the lag between prime and probe is long and the same stimuli are repeatedly presented within a different classification task demonstrating a remarkable durability of S–C associations
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