CONTEXT LEARNING IN EXTINCTION: SINGLE-CELL EVIDENCE FOR ATTENTIONAL AND GENERALIZATION MODELS

Extinction learning exhibits a striking asymmetry: while initial acquisition generalizes broadly across contexts, extinction learning remains tightly bound to the context in which it occurs. This asymmetry raises fundamental questions about the mechanisms underlying contextual control. In this study, we tested two leading accounts of this phenomenon using single-cell recordings in pigeons during ABA and AAB renewal procedures. The attentional model proposes that contextual cues only gain relevance during extinction, when prediction errors increase their associative weight. In contrast, the generalization model argues that initial learning promotes broad stimulus generalization, while extinction is constrained by the pre-existing representation of the original context. Our results provide electrophysiological evidence that directly tests predictions from both models, offering new insights into how attention and generalization interact during the learning of context in extinction.