The present article explored the fate of previously formed response-outcome associations when the relation between R and O was disrupted by arranging for O to occur independently of R. In each of three experiments response independent outcome delivery selectively reduced the R earning that O. Nevertheless, in Experiments 1 and 2, the R continued to show sensitivity to outcome devaluation, suggesting that the strength of the R-O association was undiminished by this treatment. These experiments used a two-lever, two-outcome design introducing the possibility that devaluation reflected the influence of specific Pavlovian lever-outcome associations. In an attempt to nullify the influence of these incidental Pavlovian cues Experiment 3 used a single bidirectional vertical lever that rats could press left or right for different outcomes. Again, response-independent outcome presentations selectively depressed the performance of the R that delivered the response-independent O. However, in this situation, the response independent O also reduced the sensitivity of R to outcome devaluation; whereas the nondegraded R was sensitive to devaluation, the degraded R was not. We conclude that selective degradation of the instrumental contingency can weaken a specific R-O association while leaving other R-O associations intact. Furthermore, the use of a bidirectional vertical lever in Experiment 3 revealed that unidirectional and spatially separated instrumental manipulanda, such as levers or chains, may produce Pavlovian cues capable of forming incidental associations with the instrumental outcome that can obscure the relative influence of R-O associations after various manipulations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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与响应无关的结果演示削弱了工具响应-结果关联。

本文探讨了当通过安排 O 独立于 R 发生而破坏 R 和 O 之间的关系时，先前形成的反应-结果关联的命运。在三个实验中的每一个实验中，反应独立结果传递选择性地减少了获得 O 的 R。尽管如此, 在实验 1 和 2 中，R 继续表现出对结果贬值的敏感性，表明 RO 关联的强度并未因这种处理而减弱。这些实验使用双杠杆、双结果设计，引入了贬值反映特定巴甫洛夫杠杆结果关联的影响的可能性。为了消除这些偶然的巴甫洛夫线索的影响，实验 3 使用了一个双向垂直杠杆，老鼠可以向左或向右按​​压以获得不同的结果。再次，与响应无关的结果呈现选择性地抑制了 R 的表现，而 R 提供了与响应无关的 O。然而，在这种情况下，与响应无关的 O 也降低了 R 对结果贬值的敏感性；未退化的 R 对贬值敏感，而退化的 R 则不然。我们得出结论，工具意外事件的选择性退化可以削弱特定的 RO 关联，同时保持其他 RO 关联完好无损。此外，在实验 3 中使用双向垂直杠杆表明，单向和空间分离的仪器操作，如杠杆或链条，可能会产生巴甫洛夫线索，这些线索能够与仪器结果形成偶然关联，从而掩盖 RO 关联在之后的相对影响各种操纵。