We have previously reported that human participants trained with a simultaneous feature negative discrimination (intermixed A+ / AB- trials) show only modest transfer of inhibitory properties of the feature B to a separately trained excitor in a summation test (Lee & Lovibond, 2021). Self-reported causal structure suggested that many participants learned that the effect of the feature B was somewhat specific to the excitor it had been trained with (modulation), rather than learning that the feature prevented the outcome (prevention). This pattern is reminiscent of the distinction between negative occasion-setting and conditioned inhibition in the animal conditioning literature. However, in animals, occasion-setting is more commonly seen with a serial procedure in which the feature (B) precedes the training excitor (A). Accordingly, we ran three experiments to compare serial with simultaneous training in an allergist causal judgment task. Transfer in a summation test was stronger to a previously modulated test excitor compared to a simple excitor after both simultaneous and serial training. There was a numerical trend towards a larger effect in the serial group, but it failed to reach significance and the Bayes Factor indicated support for the null. Serial training had no differential effect on self-reported causal structure, and did not significantly reduce overall transfer. After both simultaneous and serial training, transfer was strongest in participants who reported a prevention structure, replicating and extending our previous results to a previously modulated excitor. These results suggest that serial feature negative training does not promote a qualitatively different inhibitory causal structure compared to simultaneous training in humans.

我们之前曾报道过，接受过同时特征负歧视（混合 A+/AB- 试验）训练的人类参与者在求和测试中仅将特征 B 的抑制特性适度转移到单独训练的激励器（Lee & Lovibond，2021）。自我报告的因果结构表明，许多参与者了解到特征 B 的影响在某种程度上特定于它所训练的兴奋剂（调制），而不是了解到该特征阻止了结果（预防）。这种模式让人想起动物调理文献中的负面场合设置和条件抑制之间的区别。然而，在动物中，场合设置更常见于一系列程序，其中特征 (B) 在训练激励器 (A) 之前。因此，我们进行了三个实验，以比较过敏症因果判断任务中的连续训练与同步训练。在同时和连续训练之后，与简单的激励器相比，求和测试中的转移比先前调制的测试激励器更强。序列组中存在更大效应的数值趋势，但未能达到显着性，贝叶斯因子表明支持零。连续训练对自我报告的因果结构没有差异影响，也没有显着减少整体转移。在同时和连续训练后，报告预防结构的参与者的转移最强，将我们以前的结果复制并扩展到先前调制的激振器。