Choosing a future from a murky past: A generalization-based model of behavior

Cowie, Sarah; Davison, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104685

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…The extent to which behavior comes under control by a contingency depends critically on both stimulus and reinforcer control. The general approach to understanding such combined control by time and location that we have espoused (Cowie & Davison, 2020, 2022; Davison & Cowie, 2022), with a minor modification for intramodel consistency, did a good job of describing changes in response locations across sets of blackout durations when correct responding was conditionally signaled by two sets of durations (Experiment 1). The model parameters obtained in Experiment 1 failed accurately to predict choice when the conditional stimuli were just two blackout durations (Experiment 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The generalization‐across‐dimensions model applied to conditional temporal discrimination

Davison,

Cowie

2024

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Can simple choice conditional‐discrimination choice be accounted for by recent quantitative models of combined stimulus and reinforcer control? In Experiment 1, two sets of five blackout durations, one using shorter intervals and one using longer intervals, conditionally signaled which subsequent choice response might provide food. In seven conditions, the distribution of blackout durations across the sets was varied. An updated version of the generalization‐across‐dimensions model nicely described the way that choice changed across durations. In Experiment 2, just two blackout durations acted as the conditional stimuli and the durations were varied over 10 conditions. The parameters of the model obtained in Experiment 1 failed adequately to predict choice in Experiment 2, but the model again fitted the data nicely. The failure to predict the Experiment 2 data from the Experiment 1 parameters occurred because in Experiment 1 differential control by reinforcer locations progressively decreased with blackout durations, whereas in Experiment 2 this control remained constant. These experiments extend the ability of the model to describe data from procedures based on concurrent schedules in which reinforcer ratios reverse at fixed times to those from conditional‐discrimination procedures. Further research is needed to understand why control by reinforcer location differed between the two experiments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The generalization‐across‐dimensions model applied to conditional temporal discrimination

Davison,

Cowie

2024

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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“…Given the apparent importance of mediating behavior in navigating the temporal structure of the world, it is essential to ask how these mediating behaviors develop, and why some individuals fill time with mediating behavior more efficiently than others. LeT’s conceptual approach to understanding the temporal organisation of behavior might capture the role of mediating behaviors in timing were such mediating behaviors able to be measured with the same rigor as are timing behaviors (e.g., see [ 50 ] for discussion).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Where non-temporal discrimination errors occur, a model dealing only with temporal control will conflate non-temporal discrimination errors with temporal ones. This conflation will inadvertently creating timing errors [ 32 , 50 , 51 ]. The stream of environmental inputs an animal faces is distributed across both temporal and non-temporal dimensions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not bird-brained: Chickens use prior experience to solve novel timing problems

2023

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Despite differences between bird and human brain anatomy, birds have recently demonstrated capacities thought to be uniquely human, including planning and problem-solving. Many avian demonstrations of ‘complex’ behaviors rely on species-specific behavior (e.g., caching, tool use), or use birds who have evolved largely in similarly undomesticated circumstances (e.g., pigeons). In the present experiment, we asked how a species domesticated thousands of years ago, chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus), used past experience to navigate novel problems in the double-bisection task. The double-bisection task which has been used extensively with pigeons, allowing a comparison of signatures of chicken and pigeon performance on the same task. Our findings revealed chickens, like pigeons, show flexible learning that is sensitive to the broader context in which events occur. Further, as with pigeons, our chickens’ patterns of performance could be divided into two distinct categories which may reflect differences in the specific behaviors in which organisms engage during a timing task. Our findings demonstrate remarkable similarity in how chickens and pigeons use past experience to navigate novel problems. Further, these findings add to a growing body of knowledge suggesting the simplest forms of learning common across species–operant and respondent conditioning–are more flexible than is typically assumed.

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Choosing a future from a murky past: A generalization-based model of behavior

Cited by 2 publications

References 102 publications

The generalization‐across‐dimensions model applied to conditional temporal discrimination

The generalization‐across‐dimensions model applied to conditional temporal discrimination

Not bird-brained: Chickens use prior experience to solve novel timing problems

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