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GENERALIZATION DURING ACQUISITION, EXTINCTION, AND TRANSFER OF MATCHING WITH AN ADJUSTABLE COMPARISON 1
Author(s) -
Cohen Leila R.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
journal of the experimental analysis of behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1938-3711
pISSN - 0022-5002
DOI - 10.1901/jeab.1969.12-463
Subject(s) - stimulus generalization , generalization , extinction (optical mineralogy) , confusion , discrimination learning , matching (statistics) , psychology , stimulus control , stimulus (psychology) , statistics , transfer (computing) , transfer of learning , cognitive psychology , audiology , artificial intelligence , mathematics , computer science , communication , developmental psychology , biology , neuroscience , medicine , perception , mathematical analysis , parallel computing , psychoanalysis , nicotine , paleontology
Three groups of pigeons were given conditional discrimination training in which the number of standard stimuli was varied across groups. In the presence of each standard, a pigeon adjusted the comparison stimulus on a second key until the two keys matched. A report of this match (response on the first key) was reinforced. Transfer of the matching performance was investigated by adding new standards to the ones already available. All pigeons were exposed to two extinction sessions after 155 sessions of training. Rapidity of acquisition was inversely related to the number of standards presented. Generalization gradients derived from the several comparison stimuli showed that all pigeons reached a high level of accuracy in the presence of at least one standard, and some pigeons did so in the presence of as many as four of the six standards. There was no evidence of a systematic effect of extinction upon overall accuracy, or the individual generalization gradients. When a new standard was added, a given pigeon's performance (in terms of responding to the comparisons) was similar to performance in the presence of one of the old standards. However, the pigeons did not show evidence of confusion among the comparisons.