An argument that you see in some research is that the color Red is a CS+ that evokes an avoidance response.

Read the first page of Mehta & Zhu (2009) for an example.

The argument is that red is connected with such events as stop signs, fire trucks, and receiving a bad grade on a test or paper. You now recognize that this is a contiguity analysis. Red is close in space and time to an event.

I want you to do both a contiguity and contingency analysis of some situation involving red and decide whether you expect red to be a good CS+ for danger.

Remember that you can have contiguity but a weak or poor excitatory contingency. The issue is whether the CS predicts an increase in the rate/likelihood of the UCS relative to when the CS is absent. Are you more likely to receive a failing grade when the ink color is red vs. green, blue, or black?

1. Pick some situation where you have contiguity between red and some bad event.

2. What makes that event a *bad* event according to Pavlov and Kamin? Differentiate between the two explanations.

3. Do a contingency analysis of the situation. What happens when the CS is present vs. absent in this situation? Is it a good excitatory contingency?

4. What change in the situation would make red a stronger or weaker CS+?