Figure 1.

Outline of behavioral training. Rats underwent simple Pavlovian conditioning followed by either devaluation (top of figure-data in Sections Conditioned Reinforcement Mediated by Devaluation-Insensitive Representations of General Affect and Role of Amygdala in Conditioned Reinforcement; note five rats out of the group received blocking then devaluation, indicated by gray dotted line) or by transreinforcer blocking (bottom of figure data in Section Conditioned Reinforcement Mediated by Devaluation-Sensitive Representations of Specific Outcomes). Subsequently, Pavlovian cues from this training were delivered contingent on instrumental responding to test the associative basis of conditioned reinforcement. To test whether conditioned reinforcement could be mediated by devaluation-insensitive affective representations, we compared instrumental responding for B versus a control cue (CS− or X) in the devalued and non-devalued rats. To test whether conditioned reinforcement could be mediated by devaluation-sensitive outcome-specific information, we compared instrumental responding for A versus X and Y versus X. Unless noted in the methods, the outcomes, cues and responses were counterbalanced.