Fig. 1: Experimental setup.
From: Extinction context is learned by pigeons, not given by the environment
A Arena. Each arm was illuminated in a distinct color and a large monitor displayed a geometrical shape as landmarks. The animals responded on small touchscreens close to the floor, there they also received rewards from automated feeders. B Trial structure. Following a peck at the initiation stimulus, a forced choice of S+ and S- was presented. These stimuli were either familiar (stable across all sessions) or novel (session unique) stimuli. Screen-location and sequence of familiar and novel stimuli were pseudo-randomized. C ABA’ procedure. Acquisition (context A) took place in a randomly assigned location (balanced across animals and sessions), with the touchscreen showing a white background. Extinction (context B) took place at a different location, with the touchscreen color changed to a distinct color (yellow in the example). Renewal (context A’) was tested either at the acquisition location with the extinction touchscreen color (environmental context) or at the extinction location with the acquisition touchscreen color (local context). A video illustrating the experimental setup and the pigeons’ behavior during the task is available in the supplementary information.
