No abstract

We report a novel method for investigating the acquisition of anticipatory responding in the pigeon. Four pigeons () received food for pecking a starburst target stimulus displayed in the bottom-left or bottom-right portion of a computer screen. The target stimulus was preceded by 1 of 3 fractal images displayed in either the upper-left or upper-right portion of the screen: 1 of the fractals was perfectly correlated with the target appearing in the bottom-left, the second fractal was perfectly correlated with the target appearing in the bottom-right, and the third fractal was uncorrelated with the location of the target. The pigeons learned to anticipate the location of the upcoming target stimulus, because they were faster to peck the target stimulus on trials that involved a predictive fractal than on trials that involved a nonpredictive fractal. In a later phase, we reversed the signaled target location of each of the 2 predictive fractals. After an initial disruption in performance, the pigeons successfully learned the new stimulus assignments, exhibiting the same pattern of responding as during the initial training phase. Overall, the results document the utility of this novel training procedure and further underscore the role that associative processes play in anticipatory responding. (PsycINFO Database Record

No abstract

Students from different areas of academic training (Psychology vs. Optometry) completed a task in which they had to locate a "lost moving target" in a simulated forest on a computer screen. The effects of three independent variables were assessed: a) the type of trajectory of the moving target (regular and irregular), b) the time elapsed since the loss of visual contact with the moving target (delays of 1, 4 and 6 seconds), and c) administration / non administration of verbal consequences for localization responses. Results indicated that accuracy in localization responses was higher on 1) regular trajectories, 2) shortest delays, 3) verbal consequences condition, and 4) Optometry students. Findings are discussed in terms of the parameters of the task. Contributions of the academic training of the participants are discussed as a linguistic scenario in which differential modes of the contact with the environment’s mediation are learned.

En el presente estudio, se somete a prueba una propuesta ampliamente aceptada en el área del Aprendizaje de Tiempo y Lugar (TPL): Esto es, que la ocurrencia de este aprendizaje, requiere regularidad en los tres componentes de la tarea: tiempo, lugar y evento. Para ello, se compararon los efectos de distintas duraciones del periodo de disponibilidad de reforzamiento en dos condiciones: secuencia constante y secuencia variable, en una cámara con cuatro comederos, sobre la emergencia de TPL. En la primera condición, el reforzador estaba disponible en un comedero diferente en cada ensayo, pero siempre en la misma secuencia. En la condición variable, la secuencia de comederos en los que se entregaba el reforzador cambió aleatoriamente. Se expusieron cuatro palomas primero a la condición variable y después a la condición constante. Para dos palomas, la disponibilidad de reforzamiento fue de 3 minutos (G3) y para las dos restantes, de 6 minutos (G6). En la condición variable, los sujetos del G6 ajustaron mejor sus respuestas a los parámetros temporo-espaciales de la tarea que los sujetos del G3. En la condición constante, no se apreciaron diferencias entre grupos. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos hallazgos para las consideraciones previas acerca del posible rol asimétrico de parámetros espaciales y temporales de la tarea.