Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Blocking effect

The blocking effect, also known as Kamin blocking, is a core phenomenon in classical conditioning and associative learning, wherein prior conditioning of a stimulus (conditioned stimulus A, or CS A) to an outcome (unconditioned stimulus, or US) impairs the acquisition or expression of a conditioned response to a novel stimulus (CS B) when the two are combined in a compound stimulus (AB) and paired with the same US.^[1] This effect was first systematically demonstrated by psychologist Leon J. Kamin in experiments conducted in the late 1960s, using a conditioned emotional response (CER) procedure with rats. In Kamin's seminal studies, animals were initially conditioned to associate a light (CS A) with an electric shock (US), establishing a strong fear response; subsequent pairings of the light with a tone (CS B) and shock failed to produce significant conditioning to the tone alone, as measured by suppression of ongoing behavior like bar-pressing.^[1] The discovery built on earlier work in Pavlovian conditioning, such as Estes and Skinner's 1941 exploration of anxiety in rats, but Kamin's findings highlighted a departure from pure contiguity-based models of learning. The blocking effect has profound theoretical implications, challenging the idea that learning occurs solely through repeated pairings of stimuli and outcomes, and instead emphasizing the role of prediction error—the discrepancy between expected and actual outcomes—in driving associative changes. According to the Rescorla-Wagner model, a influential computational framework for associative learning, blocking arises because the previously conditioned CS A fully predicts the US, leaving no residual error to support learning about CS B. This insight fueled the cognitive revolution in psychology during the 1970s, shifting focus toward attentional mechanisms and information processing in learning, and it remains a benchmark for testing theories of selective attention and causal inference in both human and animal cognition. Empirically, the effect has been replicated across species and paradigms, including eyeblink conditioning in rabbits and causal judgment tasks in humans, demonstrating its robustness beyond fear conditioning. Variations such as backward blocking—where learning about CS B retroactively weakens the association with CS A—further illustrate the bidirectional nature of predictive learning. Despite its replicability, blocking is sensitive to factors like the intensity of the US and the timing of stimuli, underscoring the context-dependent nature of associative processes. Ongoing research continues to explore its neural substrates, implicating brain regions like the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in mediating attentional selectivity during learning.

Introduction

Definition

The blocking effect is a fundamental phenomenon in classical conditioning, characterized by the impaired acquisition of an association between a novel conditioned stimulus (CS2) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) when that novel stimulus is presented in compound with a previously conditioned stimulus (CS1).^[2] This effect illustrates how prior learning about one cue can limit the predictive power attributed to a new cue, highlighting the selective nature of associative learning where organisms prioritize stimuli that provide novel information about outcomes.^[2] The blocking effect typically emerges through a two-phase experimental procedure. In Phase 1, repeated pairings of CS1 with the US establish a strong association, rendering CS1 a reliable predictor of the US. In Phase 2, a compound stimulus consisting of CS1 and the novel CS2 is then paired with the US; under these conditions, little or no conditioning occurs to CS2, as evidenced by weak or absent conditioned responses (CRs) to CS2 alone in subsequent tests.^[2] This demonstrates cue competition, in which the established predictive value of CS1 "blocks" CS2 from gaining significant associative strength, as the compound presentation fails to signal any unexpected change in US occurrence.^[2] Unlike overshadowing, where two novel stimuli compete simultaneously during initial conditioning (with more salient cues dominating association formation), blocking specifically requires prior conditioning to one stimulus, emphasizing learned predictability over perceptual salience.^[2] In contrast, unblocking can occur if the US intensity or magnitude changes unexpectedly during Phase 2 (e.g., a stronger US than anticipated), allowing CS2 to acquire associative strength by resolving the prediction error.^[3] A classic paradigm involves rats in a conditioned emotional response setup, where a noise (CS1) is first paired with a foot shock (US) to elicit fear suppression of bar-pressing behavior. In Phase 2, a compound of noise and light (CS2) is paired with the shock; rats subsequently show minimal suppression to the light alone, confirming the blocking of conditioning to CS2.^[2] This phenomenon is often attributed to reduced prediction error for the US when CS1 is present, limiting learning about additional cues.^[4]

Historical Discovery

The blocking effect was first systematically demonstrated in the late 1960s through experiments conducted by psychologist Leon J. Kamin at Princeton University. In these studies, Kamin used the conditioned emotional response (CER) procedure with rats, pairing auditory tones or visual lights as conditioned stimuli (CS) with electric foot shocks as the unconditioned stimulus (US). Rats first underwent conditioning to a single CS, such as a light, which reliably predicted the shock and elicited strong fear responses, measured by suppression of ongoing behavior like bar pressing. When a second CS, such as a tone, was then introduced in compound with the established light during further shock pairings, the rats failed to develop significant conditioning to the tone alone, as evidenced by minimal suppression when the tone was later presented in isolation.^[1] These findings, detailed in Kamin's seminal 1969 chapter, challenged prevailing contiguity-based theories of classical conditioning, which posited that mere temporal pairing of a CS and US was sufficient for associative learning.^[5] Instead, Kamin argued that learning depended on the surprise or novelty value of the US; when the initial CS fully predicted the shock, the compound phase introduced no additional surprise, thereby blocking new associations to the second CS.^[1] This insight highlighted the role of attentional processes and prediction errors in conditioning, marking a shift toward cognitive interpretations of learning phenomena. In the 1970s, early replications and extensions of Kamin's blocking paradigm by researchers like Robert A. Rescorla and Allan R. Wagner confirmed the robustness of the effect across various stimuli and procedures.^[2] Their work culminated in the influential Rescorla-Wagner model, a formal error-correction framework that mathematically accounted for blocking by positing that learning increments are proportional to the discrepancy between expected and actual US occurrences. This model provided a theoretical foundation for understanding blocking and spurred decades of further research into associative learning mechanisms.

Theoretical Frameworks

Prediction Error Models

Prediction error models in associative learning posit that the blocking effect arises from discrepancies between predicted and actual outcomes, driving selective updates to associative strengths. These models emphasize that learning occurs primarily when an unconditioned stimulus (US) surprises the organism, rather than through mere temporal contiguity between conditioned stimuli (CSs) and the US. This framework challenges earlier contiguity-based theories by demonstrating how prior learning about one cue can diminish the impact of new information about another, as seen in blocking paradigms.^[4] The seminal Rescorla-Wagner model formalizes this process through an error-driven update rule, where the change in associative strength for a stimulus, ΔV, is proportional to the prediction error δ, defined as the difference between the actual US intensity λ and the total predicted value V from all present stimuli: δ = λ - V. The full equation is ΔV = α β δ, in which α represents the salience of the CS, and β is the learning rate for the US. In a blocking scenario, during the first phase, repeated pairings of CS1 with the US allow V_CS1 to asymptote toward λ, minimizing δ. In the second phase, when CS1 is compounded with a novel CS2 and paired with the US, the total V (V_CS1 + V_CS2) already approximates λ due to the established V_CS1, resulting in δ ≈ 0. Consequently, little to no associative strength accrues to CS2, preventing its conditioning. This quantitative mechanism illustrates how blocking reflects an efficient error-correction process that allocates learning resources based on informational value.^[6]^[4] Extensions of the Rescorla-Wagner model, such as temporal difference (TD) learning, incorporate temporal dynamics to better account for real-world conditioning where delays between CS and US are common. In TD models, the prediction error is computed across time steps, propagating updates backward to earlier stimuli via eligibility traces, yet blocking persists through the same reduction in error signal when a prior predictor dominates expectations. For instance, in simulations of classical conditioning tasks, TD algorithms replicate blocking by downregulating learning for redundant cues, aligning with neuroscientific applications linking these errors to dopamine signaling. This evolution maintains the core insight that blocking evidences adaptive, error-minimizing learning over simplistic pairing rules.^[7]^[8]

Comparator Theories

Comparator theories of the blocking effect in classical conditioning posit that the phenomenon emerges from comparative processes between stimuli during retrieval or performance, rather than solely from diminished learning during acquisition. In these frameworks, blocking occurs when a novel conditioned stimulus (CS2) fails to elicit a strong response not because it forms a weak association with the unconditioned stimulus (US), but because its predictive value is overshadowed by a previously effective blocker stimulus (CS1). This comparison inhibits the expression of CS2's conditioned response, emphasizing competition in memory retrieval over error-driven updates to associative strength. A seminal comparator theory is Mackintosh's 1975 attentional model, which attributes blocking to variations in the associability or attention allocated to stimuli based on their prior predictive success. According to this model, during initial training, CS1 acquires high attentional salience because it reliably signals the US, enhancing its processing and predictive power. When CS1 and CS2 are later presented in compound with the US, attention to CS1 remains dominant, actively suppressing attention to CS2 and thereby preventing CS2 from gaining associability or forming a strong CS2-US link. This attentional competition explains forward blocking as a failure in perceptual processing of the added cue, with empirical support from reduced overshadowing when CS1's salience is diminished. Wagner's 1981 Sometimes Opponent Process (SOP) model extends comparator ideas through a detailed mechanism of stimulus representation and temporal processing, incorporating both within-event and between-event comparisons to account for blocking. In SOP, stimuli are represented in multiple states: an active state (A1) for ongoing processing, an inactive but activatable state (A2), and a latent inactive state (I). During compound conditioning, CS2's representation in A2 is compared to the ongoing activation of CS1 and the US context in A1, leading to inhibitory associations if CS1 already fully activates the relevant US pathway. This comparative inhibition at retrieval ensures that CS2 evokes little response, as its potential activation is offset by the superior match provided by CS1 to the US representation. The model successfully simulates blocking by distinguishing immediate (within-trial) from delayed (between-trial) processing dynamics. A core feature across comparator theories is the post-conditioning comparator stage, where the response to CS2 is evaluated relative to alternative predictors like CS1. At test, if CS1 better anticipates the US—based on prior learning—the behavioral output to CS2 is suppressed, reflecting retrieval competition rather than incomplete acquisition. Unlike prediction error models, which focus on error signals driving associative changes during training, comparator theories highlight performance-level mechanisms where blocking manifests as inhibited expression due to comparative evaluation. This distinction underscores how blocking can persist even when CS2-US associations form, but fail to compete effectively.

Types and Variants

Forward Blocking

Forward blocking represents the standard procedure for demonstrating the blocking effect in classical conditioning, where prior learning to one stimulus attenuates subsequent conditioning to a novel stimulus presented in compound. The procedure consists of two phases. In Phase 1, a conditioned stimulus (CS1) is presented alone and repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) over multiple trials, allowing the subject to form a strong predictive association between CS1 and the US. In Phase 2, CS1 is compounded with a novel conditioned stimulus (CS2) and the pair is paired with the US. Following training, testing reveals a strong conditioned response (CR) to CS1 presented alone but a substantially weakened CR to CS2 alone, illustrating that the established CS1-US association has interfered with the formation of a new CS2-US association.^[9] A representative example occurs in aversive fear conditioning paradigms, where an auditory tone serves as CS1 and is paired with a foot shock US across several trials to elicit fear responses. In the subsequent phase, the tone is presented simultaneously with a visual light as CS2, and the compound is paired with the same shock. Upon isolated testing, subjects display robust fear (e.g., freezing behavior) to the tone but minimal fear to the light, confirming the blocking of conditioning to the novel visual cue.^[10] The magnitude of forward blocking is influenced by procedural parameters, particularly the number of Phase 1 trials. Increasing the number of CS1-US pairings in Phase 1—typically 12 or more trials—strengthens the blocking effect by enhancing the predictive power of CS1, thereby reducing the associability of the US for CS2.^[9] Additionally, changes in US intensity between phases can weaken blocking (known as unblocking) by generating prediction error that allows greater learning about CS2.^[11] Forward blocking is the most prevalent demonstration of the blocking effect, exhibiting robustness across diverse paradigms, including both appetitive conditioning (e.g., food reward) and aversive conditioning (e.g., shock).^[2]

Backward Blocking

Backward blocking refers to a cue competition phenomenon in which prior conditioning to a target stimulus (CS2) is diminished following additional training with a compound stimulus consisting of CS2 and a novel stimulus (CS1), both paired with the unconditioned stimulus (US). The standard procedure involves an initial phase where CS2 is repeatedly paired with the US to establish conditioning, followed by a second phase of compound training where CS1 and CS2 are presented together and paired with the US, and finally a test phase assessing the conditioned response (CR) to CS2 alone. Compared to control conditions without the initial CS2-US pairing, this results in reduced CR to CS2, indicating a retrospective reduction in the perceived associative strength of CS2.^[12] This effect exemplifies retrospective revaluation, where learning about CS1 after the compound training alters the evaluation of the previously established CS2-US association, posing a challenge to simple error-driven acquisition models that assume associations form only during direct training. In human causal judgment tasks, for instance, participants first learn that cue B causes an outcome, then observe that a compound of cues A and B also causes the outcome; subsequent judgments of B's causality are then reduced, as if the later evidence about A diminishes belief in B's independent role.^[12] Such demonstrations have been reliably obtained in humans using contingency judgment paradigms.^[12] Backward blocking is generally less robust than forward blocking and is particularly sensitive to contextual changes between training phases, which can disrupt the retrospective revaluation process and lead to attenuated or absent effects. While early studies highlighted a discrepancy, with robust effects in human causal learning but elusive in animal conditioning, subsequent research has demonstrated backward blocking in rats and other species under controlled conditions, such as when using first-order conditioning procedures that minimize inhibitory tendencies.^[13] Comparator theories account for this variant by positing that the strengthened CS1 acts as a comparator that suppresses expression of the CS2-US association during testing.

Experimental Evidence

Classic Studies

One of the foundational demonstrations of the blocking effect came from Leon Kamin's 1969 study using conditioned suppression in rats. In this experiment, rats first received pairings of a light (CS1) with electric shock (US), establishing strong conditioning to the light. Subsequently, a compound stimulus consisting of the light paired with a novel tone (CS2) was presented with shock. Rats in this blocking group showed minimal conditioning to the tone, as evidenced by little suppression of ongoing bar-pressing behavior when the tone was later presented alone. In contrast, control groups without prior light-shock pairings exhibited robust suppression to the tone after similar compound training. This result indicated that the established predictor (light) prevented attention to and learning about the novel tone.^[1] Building on this, Allan Wagner and colleagues in 1968 investigated the role of surprise in conditioning through experiments on relative stimulus validity in rats. Using a discrimination learning procedure, they trained rats on trials where a light (A) was consistently paired with food reinforcement, either alone or in consistent (A always reinforced, B always nonreinforced) or inconsistent (A and B reinforced or nonreinforced together) contexts with a noise (B). Conditioning was stronger to the more valid predictor (A in consistent conditions), with reduced learning to B when A was present and reliable, suggesting that surprise—defined as the discrepancy between expected and actual outcomes—drives selective attention and blocks redundant cues. Response rates during test presentations confirmed that this effect reflected learning deficits rather than mere performance limitations.^[14] These classic studies, including Rescorla's demonstrations of blocking in appetitive conditioning with pigeons, consistently utilized operant baselines—such as bar pressing in rats for suppression metrics or key pecking in pigeons for appetitive measures—to precisely quantify conditioned response strength, isolating the blocking effect as a cognitive learning phenomenon independent of motivational or performance factors.^[1]^[14]

Modern Findings and Challenges

Recent research has demonstrated the robustness of the blocking effect across diverse species, highlighting its generality in associative learning processes. In humans, the effect is consistently observed in causal learning tasks, where prior association of a cue with an outcome diminishes learning about a new cue paired with the same outcome. Similarly, studies in non-human primates, such as rhesus monkeys, have shown blocking in discrimination tasks, where pre-training on one stimulus reduces the salience of a compound stimulus in subsequent learning. In insects like honeybees, olfactory blocking experiments reveal analogous phenomena, with prior conditioning to one odor impairing acquisition to a second odor in blends. However, variations emerge in eyeblink conditioning paradigms; while robust in rabbits and humans, the effect shows interspecies differences in acquisition rates and consistency, potentially due to differences in cerebellar processing or stimulus parameters. Despite this cross-species evidence, replication challenges have emerged in contemporary studies. A 2016 meta-analysis by Collins et al. of 15 experiments failed to replicate the blocking effect in standard human contingency learning paradigms, despite using procedures closely mirroring classic designs. These failures were attributed to procedural variations, such as increased unpredictability of the unconditioned stimulus (US), which may reduce prediction error and thus attenuate blocking. Such issues underscore the sensitivity of the effect to experimental parameters, prompting calls for standardized protocols to enhance reliability.^[15] Recent findings from 2020 have explored individual differences in blocking using sign- and goal-tracking phenotypes in rats. In these studies, sign trackers—individuals strongly associating cues with rewards—exhibited robust blocking, while goal trackers showed attenuated effects, suggesting that motivational orientations modulate prediction error-driven learning. These differential patterns imply that mixed-phenotype groups may contribute to replication variability in behavioral experiments. The blocking effect has also informed applications in artificial intelligence, particularly reinforcement learning models. In temporal-difference learning algorithms, blocking emerges as a core mechanism where prior value predictions prevent updates to redundant features, mirroring biological prediction error theories and improving efficiency in multi-cue environments. Additionally, research indicates that blocking may be increased in relation to autistic traits, potentially reflecting differences in attention switching that enhance cue competition in associative processes.^[16]

Neurobiological Mechanisms

Brain Regions Involved

The amygdala is a key brain region implicated in the blocking effect, particularly in fear conditioning paradigms, where it processes predictive signals and modulates conditioned responses to stimuli. In rodents, lesions to the central nucleus of the amygdala impair the expression of fear-potentiated startle by preventing the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear.^[17] Functional imaging studies further support this role, demonstrating that the amygdala exhibits reduced activation to CS2 following blocking training in aversive conditioning tasks. Specifically, a 2012 fMRI study in humans revealed significantly lower amygdala responses to the blocked CS2 compared to a control conditioned stimulus, reflecting diminished predictive value and sensory processing of the blocked cue.^[10] The prefrontal cortex contributes to the blocking effect in humans, particularly in causal learning contexts where attention must shift away from redundant predictors. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity during blocking training predicts the subsequent reduction in responses to CS2, suggesting it evaluates and updates the relevance of stimuli to facilitate inhibition. Additionally, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) dynamically modulates amygdala connectivity, showing negative coupling during blocking to suppress responses to non-predictive cues, thereby mediating attentional shifts that underpin the effect. These findings highlight the prefrontal cortex's role in higher-order control over associative learning.^[10] The hippocampus supports configural processing essential for certain variants of blocking, integrating contextual and elemental cues to form complex associations. This function aligns with the hippocampus's broader role in binding disparate elements during learning, allowing for flexible updates in predictive relationships.^[18]

Neural Models

Neural models of the blocking effect emphasize how prediction errors and synaptic mechanisms underpin the reduced associability of redundant cues in classical conditioning. Midbrain dopamine neurons, particularly in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), signal reward prediction errors (δ) that drive synaptic plasticity updates according to models like the Rescorla-Wagner framework adapted to neural circuits. In blocking paradigms, the prediction error for the second conditioned stimulus (CS2) is minimized because the first conditioned stimulus (CS1) already fully predicts the unconditioned stimulus (US), resulting in diminished dopamine release and thus limited plasticity changes for CS2 pathways.^[19] This dopamine-mediated gating ensures that only novel or informative cues elicit sufficient error signals to support learning, as evidenced by reduced neural responses in regions like the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral putamen to blocked versus non-blocked cues during human reward conditioning. Hebbian learning principles integrate with these error signals to explain blocking at the synaptic level, where prior conditioning of CS1 leads to long-term potentiation (LTP) that saturates relevant synaptic pathways, preventing further strengthening for CS2. Under Hebbian rules, coincident pre- and postsynaptic activity strengthens synapses, but saturation after CS1-US pairings means that CS2 activation fails to induce additional LTP, as the postsynaptic neuron is already maximally responsive to the US via CS1 inputs. This biophysical mechanism aligns with biophysical models of associative learning in invertebrate systems like Aplysia, where presynaptic facilitation and Hebbian LTP interact during conditioning, and extends to vertebrate models where synaptic saturation disrupts subsequent learning.^[20] Experimental saturation of hippocampal LTP prior to training similarly blocks spatial learning tasks, supporting the idea that blocking reflects a ceiling on synaptic efficacy rather than purely behavioral inhibition.^[21] Temporal difference (TD) learning models provide a computational bridge between these neural processes and blocking, simulating how dopamine-like error signals update value predictions in algorithms that mimic midbrain circuits. In TD models, the prediction error δ_t = r_t + γ V(s_{t+1}) - V(s_t) (where r is reward, γ is discount factor, and V is value function) propagates backward to adjust associations, naturally producing blocking: after CS1 fully predicts the US, adding CS2 yields no residual error, so its value remains unchanged. These models replicate classic blocking phenomena in simulations of Pavlovian conditioning, including second-order conditioning and inhibition, and align with neural data showing dopamine phasic bursts encoding TD errors during cue-US intervals.^[7] TD frameworks thus ground blocking in reinforcement learning algorithms that parallel VTA dopamine dynamics.^[22] Optogenetic manipulations confirm the necessity of intact VTA projections for blocking. In a 2013 study using an appetitive conditioning paradigm, optogenetic activation of VTA dopamine neurons during reward delivery in a blocking procedure unblocked learning about the redundant cue by mimicking a prediction error, increasing conditioned responding.^[23] This demonstrates that dopamine transients are causal for error-driven updates.

Applications

In Human Learning

The blocking effect in human causal inference is prominently demonstrated in tasks simulating real-world diagnostic scenarios, such as the allergy learning paradigm. In this setup, participants assume the role of a doctor predicting allergic reactions to various foods based on trial-by-trial observations. When one food (cue A) is repeatedly associated with an allergic outcome, the subsequent introduction of a compound cue (A and B together) paired with the same outcome results in diminished learning about the causal role of the second food (cue B), as the prior association fully accounts for the effect. This selective attribution reduces judgments of contingency for the novel cue, reflecting how humans prioritize established causes in multi-factorial environments.^[24] A seminal demonstration of blocking in humans adapted Leon Kamin's classical conditioning design to semantic cues in a video game-like procedure. In Dickinson, Shanks, and Evenden's (1984) experiments, participants judged the contingency between actions and outcomes across probabilistic trials, where pre-training established a strong association between an alternative cause and the outcome. This prior learning blocked subsequent attributions to a new action, yielding lower contingency ratings for the blocked cue compared to controls, thus paralleling animal findings but using verbalizable, human-appropriate stimuli. The results underscored selective attribution as a mechanism, where learners discount redundant cues based on existing predictive validity.^[25] Humans also exhibit blocking in probabilistic contingency judgment tasks, where cues predict outcomes with varying probabilities, akin to decision-making in uncertain environments like simulated games of chance. For instance, in forward blocking paradigms, observing a reliable cue-outcome relation beforehand attenuates learning about a co-occurring cue's influence on the outcome probability. Backward blocking similarly occurs, with post hoc exposure to an alternative cause reducing prior contingency estimates for the initial cue, particularly when the alternative is highly predictive. These effects highlight how humans compute conditional probabilities selectively, avoiding over-attribution in complex probabilistic settings.^[26] In educational contexts, the blocking effect informs multi-cue learning by illustrating how prior knowledge can impede the integration of novel explanatory factors. For example, in category learning tasks, establishing a strong association with a defining feature (e.g., color predicting category membership) blocks the acquisition of non-defining features (e.g., shape), leading learners to overlook additional diagnostic cues. This has implications for instruction in domains like science or mathematics, where entrenched preconceptions may hinder adoption of alternative models; strategies to mitigate blocking, such as explicit cue reweighting or spaced review, can enhance conceptual flexibility and deeper understanding.^[27]

In Clinical Contexts

In post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), deficits in the blocking effect manifest as an impaired ability to use safety signals to inhibit fear responses, resulting in the failure of new safe cues to block or modulate reactions to trauma-related stimuli. This leads to fear overgeneralization, where neutral or safe contexts elicit persistent anxiety due to inadequate cue competition during conditioning. Research using fear-potentiated startle paradigms has shown that individuals with PTSD exhibit reduced discrimination between danger and safety cues, with greater startle responses during safe trials predicting symptom persistence over time.^[28]^[29] Exposure therapy for PTSD capitalizes on unblocking mechanisms by promoting extinction of fear associations, enabling new inhibitory learning to compete with and weaken entrenched trauma cues, thereby restoring adaptive blocking of fear responses.^[30] In addiction, the blocking effect contributes to cue competition in the development and maintenance of drug craving, where well-established contextual cues (e.g., environments associated with prior drug use) can block novel discrete cues from gaining associative strength and triggering relapse. This process underscores how dominant contextual conditioning suppresses the motivational impact of new relapse triggers, influencing the efficacy of cue-exposure therapies that aim to retrain cue salience hierarchies. Animal models of drug-seeking behavior demonstrate that such blocking reduces cue-induced reinstatement of craving, highlighting its role in relapse vulnerability.^[31] Schizophrenia is characterized by attentional blocking impairments, particularly in acute phases, where the classic Kamin blocking effect is disrupted, reflecting a failure of comparator mechanisms to filter irrelevant stimuli and prioritize predictive cues. This leads to excessive processing of redundant information, exacerbating positive symptoms like delusions through aberrant salience attribution. Studies comparing acute and chronic patients show that blocking deficits normalize with chronicity or neuroleptic treatment, linking them to hyperdopaminergic states and broader attentional dysfunctions. Recent research as of 2025 has explored virtual reality analogues of the Kamin blocking task to identify individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis, demonstrating its potential as a biomarker for early intervention.^[32]^[33]^[34]

References

[1]
[PDF] Kamin, 1969 - Appalachian State University
Predictability, Surprise, Attention, and Conditioning'. Leon J. Kamin. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. The experiments to be described here have no special relevance to ...
[2]
Kamin blocking - Scholarpedia
Jul 13, 2011 · In psychology, the term blocking refers broadly to failures to express knowledge or skill because of failures of learning or memory, ...Other demonstrations of Kamin... · Blocking of conditioned inhibitionMissing: definition | Show results with:definition
[3]
Blocking, unblocking, and overexpectation in autoshaping with ... - NIH
Three experiments used pigeons in an autoshaping procedure and a single-subject design to examine compound stimulus control in classical conditioning.
[4]
Rescorla-Wagner model - Scholarpedia
Oct 21, 2011 · Blocking Conditioning. The Kamin blocking effect, in which prior pairing of one stimulus A with the US makes ineffective the subsequent joint ...The Model · Examples · Blocking Conditioning · Conditioned Inhibition
[5]
[PDF] Predictability, Surprise, iittention, and Conditioning
PREDICTABILITY, SURPRISE, ATTENTION, AND CONDITIONING. bY. Leon J. gamin. This paper was prepared for the Symposium on Aznishment held in. Princeton, New Jersey ...
[6]
[PDF] A-theory-of-Pavlovian-conditioning-Variations-in-the-effectiveness ...
Rescorla and Wagner. Attempting to account for his data on the so-called blocking effect, Kamin argued that conditioning will occur only when the. US event ...
[7]
[PDF] A Temporal-Difference Model of Classical Conditioning
We show how the TD model performs in simulations of single-CS acquisition and extinction, trace and delay conditioning, blocking, conditioned inhibition, second ...
[8]
a testbed for the neural mechanisms of temporal-difference learning
Apr 12, 2019 · This affords a trial-based theoretical examination of the mechanisms that drive blocking and shows that blocking results from a downregulation ...Missing: primary | Show results with:primary
[9]
Reasoning Rats: Forward Blocking in Pavlovian Animal ... - NIH
Our aim in the present study was to investigate the more challenging idea that in animal Pavlovian conditioning, as in human causal learning, forward blocking ...
[10]
Neurobiological Mechanisms Underlying the Blocking Effect in ...
Sep 19, 2012 · This is most clearly demonstrated by the blocking paradigm (Kamin, 1968): when stimulus X is presented together with stimulus A and their ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[11]
Forward and backward blocking in human contingency judgement
In Experiment 2 it was found that, just as is the case with forward blocking, the degree of backward blocking depended on how good a predictor of the outcome ...Missing: first demonstration
[12]
Stimulus selection in animal discrimination learning - ResearchGate
Sep 28, 2025 · ArticlePDF Available. STIMULUS SELECTION IN ANIMAL DISCRIMINATION LEARNING. February 1968; Journal of Experimental Psychology 76(2):171-180.
[13]
Variation in the effectiveness of reinforcement and nonreinforcement ...
Two conditioned-suppression experiments investigated the effects of prior inhibitory training of A alone upon subsequent reinforcement and nonreinforcement ...
[14]
Lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala block conditioned ...
Lesions of the amygdala blocked the expression of fear-potentiated startle to the light. To assess whether conditioned inhibition was disrupted, rats were ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[15]
Retrospective revaluation and its neural circuit in rats - ScienceDirect
Oct 1, 2011 · ... backward blocking, and not unovershadowing. This observation ... hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala and lateral septum, as well ...
[16]
Human Neural Learning Depends on Reward Prediction Errors in ...
The medial orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral putamen showed significantly lower responses to blocked, compared with nonblocked, reward-predicting stimuli. In ...
[17]
Is learning blocked by saturation of synaptic weights in the ...
New data suggest that hippocampus-dependent learning is indeed disrupted following saturation of LTP of perforant-path fibres in the dorsal hippocampus.
[18]
Is learning blocked by saturation of synaptic weights in the ... - PubMed
One alternative approach is to determine whether hippocampus-dependent learning is blocked by saturation of hippocampal LTP before training. Early ...Missing: effect Hebbian
[19]
Evaluating the TD model of classical conditioning
Aug 29, 2012 · The temporal-difference (TD) algorithm from reinforcement learning provides a simple method for incrementally learning predictions of ...
[20]
Blocking and Unblocking in Human Causal Learning.
Foremost among the parallels noted by Dickinson et al. (1984) is the phenomenon of blocking: the finding that the development of responding to Cue B resulting ...
[21]
Judgement of act-outcome contingency
Judgement of Act-Outcome Contingency: The Role of Selective Attribution. Anthony Dickinson, David Shanks, John Evenden.
[22]
Forward and Backward Blocking in Human Contingency Judgement
Classical conditioning II: Current theory and research. New York ... Evidence that a transient but cognitively demanding process underlies forward blocking.
[23]
Blocking in Category Learning - PMC - PubMed Central
Some of the earliest evidence for error-driven learning can be found in studies on blocking in animals (e.g., Kamin, 1969; Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) and in ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[24]
Impaired Safety Signal Learning May be a Biomarker of PTSD - PMC
Overall, PTSD subjects demonstrate a lack of safety signal learning and an inability to modulate the fear responses with safety cues.
[25]
Impaired fear inhibition learning predicts the persistence of ...
It is concluded that impaired fear inhibition learning seems to be involved in the persistence of PTSD symptoms.Impaired Fear Inhibition... · 2. Method · 3. Results
[26]
Prolonged Exposure (PE) - American Psychological Association
Jul 31, 2017 · Prolonged exposure is a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy that teaches individuals to gradually approach trauma-related memories, feelings, and ...Missing: unblocking | Show results with:unblocking
[27]
Role of cues and contexts on drug-seeking behaviour - PMC
Environmental cues, associated with drugs, are powerful mediators of drug-seeking behavior, and are a strong trigger for relapse. These cues can cause ...
[28]
Loss of the Kamin blocking effect in acute but not chronic ...
This was the case: acute, but not chronic, schizophrenics showed disrupted blocking. This disruption was especially clear in those acute schizophrenics tested ...
[29]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395613002938
[30]
Impaired probabilistic reversal learning in anxiety - NIH
A higher level of anxiety is associated with weaker reversal learning performance, possibly because of abnormal sensitivity to negative outcomes.Missing: backward blocking