First Order: CS+ --- reinforcer
Second Order: CS- (10 sec) ... CS+ (10 sec) --- no reinforcer
1. In sensory preconditioning, two neutral stimuli are presented prior to any conditioned reinforcement (i.e., they are "preconditioned").
If preconditioning worked, then you'd expect a CS2 to produce a CR similar to the one made by CS1.
Consider: what effect would/could sensory preconditioning have had on our protocol? Would you expect results different from the second order conditioning or do you think you would have seen similar results?
2. Consider another possibility. What if, during the second order conditioning you had done another thirty trials? Remember, in the second order phase you give:
What we (hopefully) found is that the CS- takes on some of the excitatory properties of the CS+. That is, when the CS- is presented the rat shows some food related behaviours. It is as if the rat uses the CS- to anticipate the coming of the CS+. But, what if this kept up? What do you think the rat might come to learn about the times when the CS- preceeds the CS+?
3. Here's another one: What would happen if during Phase II we didn't reinforce the First Order trials (like i initially mistakenly suggested in class)? So, what if it looked like this:
What behavioural response would the rat make to the second order conditioning? How about the non-reinforced first order conditioning?