Analysis of the role of overlearning in discrimination reversal.

D’Amato, M. R.; Jagoda, H.

doi:10.1037/h0047757

Cited by 60 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This hypothesis was based on our previous findings that pigeons have an initial preference for the optimal (three-pellet) alternative prior to their strong eventual preference for the suboptimal alternative. Support for our hypothesis was the earlier finding that extended training with a simultaneous discrimination can lead to reduced inhibition as assessed by a preference test between an overtrained and undertrained S− stimulus (Biederman, 1968; see also D’Amato & Jagoda, 1961).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Suboptimal choice by pigeons may result from the diminishing effect of nonreinforcement.

Laude

Stagner

Zentall

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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Pigeons prefer an alternative that provides them with a stimulus 20% of the time that predicts 10 pellets of food and a different stimulus 80% of the time that predicts 0 pellets, over an alternative that provides them with a stimulus that always predicts 3 pellets of food, even though the preferred alternative provides them with considerably less food. It appears that the stimulus that predicts 10 pellets acts as a strong conditioned reinforcer, in spite of the fact that the stimulus that predicts 0 pellets occurs four times as often. In the present research we tested the hypothesis that early in training conditioned inhibition develops to the 0-pellet stimulus but later in training it dissipates. We trained pigeons with a hue as the 10-pellet stimulus and a vertical line as the 0-pellet stimulus. To assess the inhibitory value of the vertical line, we compared responding to the 10-pellet hue to responding to the compound of the 10-pellet hue and the vertical line early in training and once again late in training, using both a within subject design (Experiment 1) and a between groups design (Experiment 2) and found that there was a significant reduction in inhibition between the Early test (when pigeons chose optimally) and Late test (when choice was suboptimal). Thus, the increase in suboptimal choice may result from the decline in inhibition to the 0-pellet stimulus. Implications for human gambling behavior are considered.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Suboptimal choice by pigeons may result from the diminishing effect of nonreinforcement.

Laude

Stagner

Zentall

2014

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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“…There does exist a reasonable explanation which is in accord with a recently advanced "avoidance" hypothesis of simple discrimination learning (D 'Amato & Jagoda, 1960, 1961. According to this view, of the two basic processes involved in discrimination learning, learning to approach 84-and learning to avoid S_, the latter is ordinarily the process of far greater importance.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Flash rate as a discriminandum in discrimination learning in rats.

Mr¹

1961

Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology

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The experiments reported below were initiated by purely empirical considerations. Incidental observations suggested that albino rats found a discrimination based on steady vs. flashing light of equal intensity much more difficult than seemed reasonable on the basis of the imposing discriminability of the stimuli to human Os. Because of several potential virtues that flashing illumination possesses as a discriminandum, and the paucity of relevant data, a series of studies was undertaken which, as it turned out, produced results of unanticipated theoretical significance.It is convenient to distinguish between flashing light and flickering light, reserving the former term for stimuli having relatively slow rates, perhaps 8 per second or less. Of course flickering light, with rates of 15 to 40 per second, has often been used in studies concerned with critical flicker fusion (Landis, 1953). But apparently very few studies have used the slow rates employed in the present experiments, and so far as we know, none in a two-choice situation. EXPERIMENT 1 Method Subjects and ApparatusThe 5s were 11 experimentally naive, male albino rats, 70 to 90 days of age at the start of the study.Four units of an automatic Y-maze discrimination apparatus, fully described elsewhere (D'Amato & Jagoda, 1960), were used. ProcedurePretraining. Four days prior to the beginning of discrimination training, 5s were placed on a standard 23-hr, water-deprivation regimen. Each S was placed in a darkened arm of the maze and permitted to drink five dipperfuls of water on the day preceding the beginning of discrimination training and 3 dipperfuls on the subsequent day.

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“…To the extent that the ORE involves differential transfer of instrumental re-sponses as implied by single-unit, S-R theory, the effects of overtraining should be reflected in the number of PEs (e.g., Amsel, 1962;D'Amato & Jagoda, 1961). To test the relationship between overtraining and PE, a 2 X 2 X 2 (Overtraining X Age X Relevant Dimension) analysis of variance was carried out on PE for both age groups, producing no significant main effects or interactions (p > .05), and making 2 points relevant to the present analysis.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for an attentional explanation of the overtraining reversal effect.

Turrisi¹

1973

Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Analysis of the role of overlearning in discrimination reversal.

Cited by 60 publications

References 10 publications

Suboptimal choice by pigeons may result from the diminishing effect of nonreinforcement.

Suboptimal choice by pigeons may result from the diminishing effect of nonreinforcement.

Flash rate as a discriminandum in discrimination learning in rats.

Evidence for an attentional explanation of the overtraining reversal effect.

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