Extinction context is learned by pigeons, not given by the environment

This contains the dataset andcode analysis for https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5682968/v1

Numerous studies in psychology and neuroscience highlight the importance of “context,” exploring its effects on behavior or underlying neural processes. Interestingly, what is context, is not well established. Definitions are often vague and refer to general surroundings of subjects mentioning a magnitude of stimuli from all modalities. Our novel approach allows testing if a stimulus is context and importantly when it is not. This work can inform theoretical models of context dependent behavior such as extinction learning and provides a framework for new experimental designs. In the long run, this mechanistic approach to context lays the foundation for a systematic manipulation of contextual variables in clinical therapy, the success of which often depends on contextual variables.