Extinction context is learned through stimulus competition

Numerous lines of research in psychology and neuroscience emphasize the role of “context” in shaping behavior, yet the mechanisms through which context is formed remain poorly defined. Building on our previous work showing that any stimulus can be learned as a context, the present study investigates how organisms select one cue over others when multiple stimuli compete to define the context during extinction learning. Using our ABA′ design in pigeons, we directly compared local, environmental, and global cues placed in competition within the same learning episode. This approach reveals that contextual control emerges from associative competition among stimuli, guided by differences in salience, continuity, contiguity, and spatial proximity. The data and analyses provided here establish a mechanistic framework for understanding context as an actively learned construct, offering a foundation for future theoretical models and experimental designs focused on how organisms prioritize contextual information in dynamic environments.