... or not a prior training phase rendered one of the two stimuli a stronger predictor for the reinforcer than the other(no blocking). This result adds Drosophila to the list of other invertebrates that do not exhibit the robust vertebrate blocking phenomenon. Other forms of higher-order learning, however, were...

...Jay S. Hosler; Brian H. Smith ABSTRACT Recent studies of olfactory blocking have revealed that binary odorant mixtures are not always processed as though they give rise to mixture-unique configural properties. When animals are conditioned to one odorant (A) and then conditioned to a mixture...

...Bertram Gerber; Brian H. Smith ABSTRACT We use classical conditioning of the honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) proboscis extension reflex with a visual (A) and an olfactory (X) conditioned stimulus in a blocking paradigm. Typically, learning about one element (X) of a compound (AX) is decreased (blocked...

...Robert S. Thorn; Brian H. Smith ABSTRACT The associative learning phenomenon termed ‘blocking’ demonstrates that animals do not necessarily associate a conditioned stimulus (e.g. X) with reinforcement if X is coincident with a second conditioned stimulus (e.g. A) that had already been associated...

... perceptual effect produced by the mixture. Furthermore, studies of blocking show that behavioral acquisition in response to one component can be hindered or blocked by pretraining with the other component. These results suggest that honeybees can perceive the individual components of some binary mixtures...