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Counterconditioning

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior
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Counterconditioning occurs when a response to a stimulus is modified by pairing that stimulus with another stimulus of an opposite emotional significance (Richardson et al. 1987). This occurrence results as an alternative conditioned response to the original stimulus (Lane 2009; Pearce and Dickinson 1975; Richardson et al. 1987). Counterconditioning can involve two distinct scenarios: (a) a previously appetitive response can become aversive (i.e., appetitive-to-aversive counterconditioning) or (b) a previously aversive response can become appetitive (i.e., aversive-to-appetitive counterconditioning). Counterconditioning consists of Pavlovian conditioning in which a previously neutral stimulus (NS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) to produce a conditioned response (CR). The NS becomes a conditioned stimulus after repeated pairings with the US. Counterconditioning successfully occurs when the original conditioned or unconditioned response is modified by replacing a cue from...

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Correspondence to Prescilla John .

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John, P. (2018). Counterconditioning. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1291-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1291-1

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