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STIMULUS DISCRIMINABILITY IN FREE‐OPERANT AND DISCRETE‐TRIAL DETECTION PROCEDURES
Author(s) -
McCarthy Dianne,
Davison Michael,
Jenkins Peter E.
Publication year - 1982
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.1982.37-199
Subject(s) - operant conditioning , stimulus (psychology) , psychology , speech recognition , reinforcement , computer science , neuroscience , communication , cognitive psychology , social psychology
Six pigeons were trained to discriminate different light intensities in four experimental procedures. Experiment 1 compared stimulus discriminability in a yes‐no signal‐detection task with discriminability measures obtained from two free‐operant procedures. Discriminability estimates were significantly lower in the detection procedure. Experiment 2 showed this lowered discriminability to be a function of the delay between stimulus presentation and the availability of the choice‐response keys in the standard detection task. In addition, reinforcement sensitivity was lowest when correct choice responses were intermittently, rather than continuously, reinforced.