Acquisition under Mixed-Delay and Multiple-Delay Matching-to-Sample

Perkins, David; Lydersen, Tore; Beaman, Dale

doi:10.2466/pr0.1973.32.2.635

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This hypothesis is consistent not only with intuitions as to what factors may enhance the memory of prior events, but also with the prior empirical report of Perkins et al (1973).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

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Effects of signaled retention intervals on pigeon short-term memory

Wasserman

Grosch

Nevin

1982

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In three delayed matching-to-sample experiments, pigeons were given distinctive stimuli that were either correlated or uncorrelated with the scheduled retention intervals. Experiment 1 employeda single-key, go/ncrgo matching procedure with colors as the sample and test stimuli; lines of differing orientations signaled short or long delays for one group, whereas the lines and the delays were uncorrelated for the other group. The function relating discriminative test performance to delay length was steeper in the correlated group than in the uncorrelated group. In addition, the line orientation stimuli controlled differential rates of sample responding in the correlated group, but not in the uncorrelated group. In Experiment 2, subjects extensively trained with correlated line orientations were exposed to reversed cues on probe trials. Miscuing decreased discriminative test responding at the short delay, but enhanced it at the long delay. As in the correlated group of the first experiment, rates of sample keypecking were higher in the presence of the "short" time tag than in the presence of the "long" time tag. Experiment 3 used a three-key choice-matching procedure and a withinsubjects design, and equated reinforcement rate at the short and long delays. When auditory stimuli were correlated with delay length, the function relating choice accuracy to delay was steeper than when the stimuli and the delays were uncorrelated. The consistent effects of signaled retention intervals on memory performance may be understood in terms of differential attention to the sample stimuli.Recently, the delayed matching-to-sample paradigm (e.g., Blough, 1959) and its numerous procedural variants (e.g., Shimp & Moffitt, 1977;Wasserman, 1976) have been used to investigate short-term memory in nonhuman subjects. Many of these studies of animal short-term memory have scheduled several different retention intervals during daily sessions, with the time values varying randomly and unpredictably from trial to trial.An exception to this practice was an experiment by Perkins, Lydersen, and Beaman (1973). There, pigeons were given stimuli that indicated not only which comparison stimulus to select at test, but also how long it would be until the memory test would be administered. These subjects showed generally better discrimination at 2-, 4-, and 6-sec retention intervals than other birds given the same delays, but nondifferentially associated with the sample stimuli.These results are consistent with the proposal that information about the upcoming retention interval facilitates memory of the sample stimulus. Unfortunately, another equally plausible hypothesis can explain the results: Because they were consistently associated with the sample stimuli, the specific delay interval durations themselves could also have served as discriminative stimuli controlling test responding for the first group of subjects but not the second, thereby supporting superior discriminative responding (Stubbs, 1968).The present study explored the influence of reten...

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“…This hypothesis is consistent not only with intuitions as to what factors may enhance the memory of prior events, but also with the prior empirical report of Perkins et al (1973).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…The present study explored the influence of retention interval information on pigeon short-term memory, while eliminating the confounding in the investigation of Perkins et al (1973). The tactic here was to add time tags to matching-to-sample procedures of the choice (Blough, 1959; our Experi-…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of signaled retention intervals on pigeon short-term memory

Wasserman

Grosch

Nevin

1982

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…Control over choice by response-produced stimuli apparently has also occurred in delayed matching-to-sample tasks (Blough, 1959;Perkins, 1970;Perkins, Lydersen, and Beaman, 1973). Blough (1959), for example, reported that pigeons performed with higher accuracy when sample-specific delay behaviors were emitted than when differential delay behaviors were not observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

EFFECTS OF RESPONSE‐PRODUCED STIMULI UPON CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE¹

Lydersen

Perkins

1974

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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In zero-delay matching procedures the performance of three groups of pigeons was examined when exteroceptive stimuli, response-produced stimuli associated with the completion of either of two fixed ratios, or a compound of exteroceptive and response-produced stimuli were available as samples. Exteroceptive samples were found to control a higher level of matching accuracy than response-produced samples, while compound samples controlled a higher level of accuracy than did exteroceptive samples alone. When all subjects were placed on a transfer procedure, during which the previously used red and green samples were replaced by horizontal and vertical lines, the availability of sample-specific fixed-ratios facilitated acquisition of the task.

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“…Other investigators have also demonstrated that requiring sample-specific behavior facilitates conditional discrimination learning (Cohen, Looney, Brady, and Aucella, 1976;Lydersen and Perkins, 1974;Perkins, Lydersen, and Beaman, 1973 Under what circumstances are coding responses utilized? Kamil and Sacks (1972) argued that at least in zero-delay matching, the sample must be coded in some way because the sample stimulus is not present when the choice of comparison stimuli is made.…”

Section: The Coding Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex Learning and Information Processing by Pigeons: A Critical Analysis

Carter

Werner

1978

J Exper Analysis Behavior

343

241

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Three models of conditional discrimination learning by pigeons are described: stimulus configuration learning, the multiple-rule model, and concept learning. A review of the literature reveals that true concept learning is not characteristic of the behavior of pigeons in matching-to-sample, oddity-from-sample, or symbolic matching studies. Instead, pigeons learn a set of sample-specific SD rules. Transfer of the discrimination to novel stimuli, at least along the hue dimension, is predicted by a "coding hypothesis", which holds that pigeons make a unique, but usually unobserved response, R,, to each sample, and that the comparison stimulus chosen depends on which R1 was emitted in the presence of the sample. Convincing evidence is found that pigeons do code sample hues, but there is little evidence that allows one to infer that the "coding event" must have behavioral properties. Parameters of the conditional discrimination paradigm are identified, and it is shown that by appropriate parametric manipulation, a variety of analogous tasks may be generated for both human and animal subjects. The tasks make possible the comparative study of complex learning, attention, memory, and information processing, with the added advantage that behavior processes may be compared systematically across tasks.

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Acquisition under Mixed-Delay and Multiple-Delay Matching-to-Sample

Cited by 8 publications

References 7 publications

Effects of signaled retention intervals on pigeon short-term memory

Effects of signaled retention intervals on pigeon short-term memory

EFFECTS OF RESPONSE‐PRODUCED STIMULI UPON CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE¹

Complex Learning and Information Processing by Pigeons: A Critical Analysis

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Acquisition under Mixed-Delay and Multiple-Delay Matching-to-Sample

Cited by 8 publications

References 7 publications

Effects of signaled retention intervals on pigeon short-term memory

Effects of signaled retention intervals on pigeon short-term memory

EFFECTS OF RESPONSE‐PRODUCED STIMULI UPON CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE1

Complex Learning and Information Processing by Pigeons: A Critical Analysis

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EFFECTS OF RESPONSE‐PRODUCED STIMULI UPON CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE¹