Eye fixations to figures in a four-choice situation with luminance balanced areas: Evaluating practice effects

Abstract

Contingency analyses of eye movements may reveal variables that are relevant to the stimulus control of observing behavior. The present research tracked the eye movements of four adults exposed to a simultaneous discrimination among four stimuli, two two-dimensional (square and circle) and two three-dimensional (cube and cylinder) mono-chromatic figures with approximately equal luminance. On each discrimination trial, the stimuli were displayed in the four corners of a video monitor and participants chose among them by pressing corresponding keys. For two participants, choosing either cube or square (S+) was followed by the word “correct” and a 3-second inter-trial interval. Alternatively, choosing either cylinder or circle (S-) was followed by "incorrect" and a 30-second inter-trial interval. For the other two participants, contingencies were reversed. The position of the stimuli on the screen varied randomly across trials. The procedure continued for 80 trials. During these trials, discriminated choices were established. Despite the presence of both a two- and a three-dimensional S+ on each trial, responses to the three-dimensional S+ tended to prevail. Although general eye fixations tended to decrease as discrimination was established, subjects tended to observe S+ for longer durations than S-. Characteristics of the stimuli may interact with the contingencies of reinforcement in the stimulus control of observing behavior.

Extension of the stimulus control produced by three procedures for teaching pseudowords discrimination

“…The effect of the DOR training can be described, in this case, as an increased discrimination and observation of S+ caused by additional training. This result is in line with those obtained by Schroeder (1970) and Pessôa et al (2009) who reported increased S+ observation as discrimination developed.…”

Peripheral vision in matching‐to‐sample procedures

“…About 20 research articles investigating stimulus control in some form in the behavior analytic literature have measured eye movements. The topics have included reinforcement schedules (Holland, 1957; Rosenberger, 1973; Schroeder & Holland, 1969), simple discrimination (Huziwara et al, 2015; Pessôa et al, 2009; Schroeder, 1969; Schroeder, 1970, 1997; Schroeder & Holland, 1968), conditional discrimination (Huziwara et al, 2016; Kirshner & Sidman, 1972), selective attention (Dube et al, 2006; Dube et al, 1999; Perez et al, 2015) and stimulus equivalence (Hansen & Arntzen, 2018; Sadeghi & Arntzen, 2018; Steingrimsdottir & Arntzen, 2016). Eye movements are measured to reveal aspects of stimulus control arranged in the experiments and contribute to a detailed stimulus control analysis.…”