Observing Behavior Topography in Delayed Matching to Multiple Samples

Abstract

This study examined relations between eye movements and accuracy scores in a delayed matching-to-sarnple procedure with multiple sample stimuli. Four adult humans responded with high accuracy when there were 2 samples per trial. When the number of samples was increased to 4 per trial, accuracy scores fell to intermediate levels for 2 of the subjects, and then recovered to high levels following practice. Eye-tracking analyses showed that subjects with high and low accuracy on the initial 4-sample trials made similar numbers of observations per trial , but high-accuracy subjects exhibited longer sample-stimulus observing durations. Practice and improvement to high accuracy was accompanied by relatively small changes in observing frequencies and large increases in sample-stimulus observing durations. The results are discussed in terms of independent stimulus control of different aspects of observing behavior topography. One topic of continuing interest in analyses of stimulus control concerns the range, breadth, or number of stimuli that can exert control simultaneously. This question has been addressod in such diverse areas as, for example, breadth of attention in animal cognition (e.g., Maki & Leuin, 1972); the effects of task complexity (number of stimuli) on reaction times in aging populations (e.g., Baron & Menich, 1985); and stimulus overselectivity, an atypically restricted breadth of stimulus control related to learning problems of some individuals with dHvelopmental disabilities Data collection and manuscript preparation were supported by NICHD Grants HD25995 and HD37055, and CNPq Grant 200552/96-1. The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NICHD. Some of the data were presented at the annual conference of the Southeastern Association for Behavior Analysis, Chapel Hill, NC, October, 1997. We thank Kevin Farren for assistance in data analysis, Bill Mcllvane for advice on the project, and Bill Mcllvane and Richard Serna for comments on the manuscript. For their generosity with technical support and assistance, we thank Rikki Razdan and

Analyzing the Stimulus Control Acquisition in Simple Discrimination Tasks through Eye Movement

“…However, only P2 presented an average greater than .90 s in the Si Procedure. Differences in the time spent observing the stimuli can be related to differences in learning task performance, as demonstrated by Dube et al (2006). The participants who obtained high percentages of correct responses in conditional discrimination tasks also increased the time spent observing the stimuli compared with participants who presented lower percentages of correct responses.…”

“…According to Serna and Carlin (2001), discrimination acquisition depends on directing students' attention to the relevant aspects of the task. If this is true, eye movement issues in teaching situations could be the reason for restricted stimulus control problems (Dube et al, 2006;Dube et al, 2010), attention problems (Doran & Holland, 1971) and many other aspects commonly related to failure in the learning process.…”

Patterns of eye movement in matching-to-sample tasks

“…Serna and Carlin (2001) argued that learning would be favored by procedures that correctly direct participants' attention to the relevant aspects of the task. Considering this hypothesis, strategies to direct eye movements during teaching trials could solve, at least in part, many aspects related to failure during the learning process (Doran and Holland, 1971;Dube et al 2006;Dube et al 2010). Evidence has been accumulating that highlights the role of eye movements in the establishment of behavioral repertoires, such as simple and conditional discriminations (Dinsmoor 1985;Dube et al 2006Dube et al , 2010Pessôa et al 2009;Schroeder 1970).…”

“…The link between learning conditional relationships and eye movements was directly assessed in an experiment by Dube et al (2006). Each trial began with the presentation of a sample composed of four elements in a 2 × 2 matrix.…”

Assessing restricted stimulus control in typically developing preschool children and bees (Melipona quadrifasciata).

“…However, more recent studies with normally capable humans (Critchfield & Perone, 1993;Dube, Balsamo, Fowler, Dickson, Lombard, & Tomanari, 2006;McHugh & Reed, 2007) indicated that RSC may develop in accordance with how the contingencies of reinforcement are arranged, especially when complex tasks are involved (Reed & Gibson, 2005;Reed, Petrina, & McHugh, 2011).…”