Contextual Discrimination After Nonreinforced Preexposure to the Context

Rats were trained on a contextual discrimination after nonreinforcedpreexposure to both contexts. In Experiment 1, where contexts differed in terms oftactile and visual stimuli, preexposure retarded subsequent discrimination bycomparison with non preexposed controls (latent inhibition). In Experiment 2, wherecontexts differed only in terms of visual cue, discrimination was facilitated inpreexposed animals (perceptual learning). Food was used as reinforcer and anticipatoryactivity as dependent measure. These results suggest that contextual similarityinfluences the outcome of nonreinforced preexposure