Discrimination learning in the pigeon following unreinforced training on the negative stimulus

The learning, by albino rats, of a size discrimination in a water-tank apparatus is described. The earliest discriminative behaviour of each of the six successful rats is of the one-look type in which the negative stimulus plays the major role. With further training, four of those subjects develop two-look discrimination in which relational properties of the stimuli are important as shown by the appearance of, first, one-step and, then, two-step transposition. The water-tank and jumping apparatuses are briefly compared. Evidence from studies of rats, monkeys and children is presented for the generalization that, within limits, the effect of practice on discriminative behaviour involving stimulus relata is to strengthen relational responding.

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Multiple Stimulus Discrimination Learning. III. What is Learned?

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/14640747308400329 ◽

1973 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 112-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jean M. Mandler

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Learning ◽

Negative Stimulus ◽

Constant Stimulus ◽

Positive Stimulus ◽

Choice Data ◽

Choice Behaviour ◽

Stimulus Discrimination ◽

Latency Data ◽

Multiple Stimulus ◽

Positive Stimuli

Rats were given a multiple stimulus discrimination, with either a constant positive stimulus combined with several negative stimuli or a constant negative stimulus combined with several positive stimuli. Choice data in transfer tests indicated that the discrimination had taken place on the basis of the constant stimulus alone and that the constant stimulus was equally effective in mediating transfer whether it had been positive or negative. While the multiple stimuli did not control choice behaviour, the latency data indicated that some analysis of them had taken place. Analyses of discrepancies in choice and latency data suggest that the two types of measure reflect different processes involved in discrimination learning.

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Discrimination of Word-Like Compound Visual Stimuli by Monkeys

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/14640747708400634 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 589-596 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

David Gaffan

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Analysis ◽

Discrimination Learning ◽

Visual Discrimination ◽

Generalization Test ◽

Visual Stimuli ◽

Negative Stimulus ◽

Initial Training ◽

Animal Discrimination Learning ◽

Positive Stimuli ◽

Negative Stimuli

In Experiment I, two monkeys solved a successive visual discrimination in which the four positive stimuli were the visual arrays RIM, LID, RAD and LAM while the four negative stimuli were RID, LIM, RAM and LAD. In Experiment II the same monkeys first learned a discrimination where the positive stimuli were pairs of letters (e.g. OB and AK) while the negative stimulus was the letter I; in a subsequent generalization test with all four possible pairings of the stimulus elements that had been positive during training (i.e. with OB, AK, OK and AB) the monkeys responded more strongly to the pairs that had been present in initial training. These results were discussed in relation to the theoretical analysis of configurational cues in animal discrimination learning and to the mechanism underlying visual discrimination of words by people.

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Reversal following Errorless Discrimination Learning

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1976.38.3.971 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 971-978 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James F. McCoy ◽

Merrill E. Pratt

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Learning ◽

Negative Stimulus ◽

Errorless Learning ◽

Original Discrimination

Pigeons were trained on a successive red-green discrimination by either a Late-Constant or Early-Progressive procedure. Following training on the original discrimination, the stimuli were reversed after which there was a return to the original discrimination. All three of the Late-Constant pigeons learned the discrimination with errors and two of the three Early-Progressive pigeons learned the discrimination errorlessly. Responding to the reversed negative stimulus occurred at essentially the same rate for Late-Constant and Early-Progressive subjects, with the exception of one Early-Progressive subject that took substantially more exposure. These results indicate that negative stimulus after errorless learning retards development of responding more than the negative stimulus following errorful learning.

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Distinctive Phonetic Features as Relevant and Irrelevant Stimulus Dimensions in Speech-Sound Discrimination Learning

Journal of Speech and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.1703.417 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 417-425

Author(s):

Stuart I. Ritterman ◽

Nancy C. Freeman

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Discrimination Learning ◽

Irrelevant Dimension ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Irrelevant Stimulus ◽

Relevant Dimension ◽

Phonetic Features ◽

Sound Discrimination ◽

Nonsense Syllables

Thirty-two college students were required to learn the relevant dimension in each of two randomized lists of auditorily presented stimuli. The stimuli consisted of seven pairs of CV nonsense syllables differing by two relevant dimension units and from zero to seven irrelevant dimension units. Stimulus dimensions were determined according to Saporta’s units of difference. No significant differences in performance as a function of number of the irrelevant dimensions nor characteristics of the relevant dimension were observed.

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