Generalization of Contextual Fear as a Function of Familiarity: The Role of Within- and Between-Context Associations

摘要

Three experiments in rats investigated the generalization of conditioned fear from one context(B)to both a preexposed context(A)and a novel context(C). In each experiment, when the conditioning context(B)had been preexposed, there was greater generalization to context A than to context C; but when B was novel at the outset of conditioning this difference between A and C was not observed. The implications of these results for associative treatments of the development of contextual memories are evaluated.