COMPARISON OF SPATIAL SUCCESSIVE DISCRIMINATION REVERSAL PERFORMANCES OF TWO GROUPS OFNEW WORLD MONKEYS

1966 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT L. GOSSETTE ◽  
NELSON INMAN
Keyword(s):  
Successive Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Reversal

Successive Discrimination Reversal (SDR) Performances of American Alligators and American Crocodiles on a Spatial Task

1969 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Gossette ◽  
Arthur Hombach
Keyword(s):  
Error Reduction ◽  
Spatial Task ◽  
Successive Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Reversal ◽  
Spatial Discrimination ◽  
American Alligator ◽  
Reversal Task ◽  
American Crocodile ◽  
American Alligators

There is general agreement that birds and mammals, but not fish, can display error reduction on successive discrimination reversal (SDR) tasks. Reptiles, however, show error reduction on some but not other tasks. To provide further sampling of reptilian SDR performance, two species of crocodilians, the American alligator and the American crocodile, were tested on a spatial discrimination reversal task. Both species displayed error reduction, the alligator being appreciably inferior to the crocodile.

Variation in Magnitude of Negative Transfer on Successive Discrimination Reversal (SDR) Tasks across Species

1969 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 803-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Gossette
Keyword(s):  
Negative Transfer ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Successive Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Reversal ◽  
Performance Differences ◽  
Species Performance

Attention is directed to the isolation of the dimensions of SDR methodology which make it sensitive to inter-species performance differences that have systematic taxonomical significance. Two dimensions in particular are indicated, inconstancy of reinforcement and the maximum opportunity for the generation of negative transfer. To determine if variation in magnitude of negative transfer is diagnostic of phyletic level, indices were studied across different phyletic levels of birds. More “primitive” birds developed greater magnitudes of negative transfer than more “advanced” birds. The relevance of these data to the retention decrement and the differential extinction hypotheses is examined.

Role of Motivational and Incentive Levels in the Control of Successive Discrimination Reversal (SDR) Performance in Comparative Analysis

1969 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Gossette
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Initial Step ◽  
Successive Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Reversal ◽  
Performance Differences ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Species Performance ◽  
Uncontrolled Variation

A number of experiments with SDR methodology have yielded inter-species performance differences that are consistent with taxonomic rankings. However, one troublesome problem that plagues such comparisons is the question of whether or not such differences might be due to uncontrolled variation in either drive ( D) or incentive ( K) levels across species. As an initial step in the evaluation of the problem a series of experiments designed to study the effect of variation of both variables, within and across species, upon SDR measures are reviewed. While it is clear that both D and K do effect SDR measures, previously obtained inter-species performance differences are recovered when species are equated on these variables.

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