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AN INFRARED SYSTEM FOR THE DETECTION OF A PIGEON'S PECKS AT ALPHANUMERIC CHARACTERS ON A TV SCREEN: THE DEPENDENCY OF LETTER DETECTION ON THE PREDICTABILITY OF ONE LETTER BY ANOTHER
Author(s) -
Clauson H. D.,
Izatt E. J.,
Shimp C. P.
Publication year - 1985
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.1985.43-257
Subject(s) - alphanumeric , string (physics) , symbol (formal) , character (mathematics) , peck (imperial) , speech recognition , communication , computer science , arithmetic , psychology , artificial intelligence , pattern recognition (psychology) , mathematics , mathematical physics , geometry , programming language
Three pigeons pecked at letters of the alphabet and at the symbol “?” displayed on a computer‐driven cathode ray screen. A 4 by 4 matrix of infrared emitting and detecting diodes and associated circuitry identified the location of a pigeon's responses to the screen. Responses at the target letter T were probabilistically reinforced with food whenever T appeared in a string of three letters in the middle of the screen. Responses at the symbol “?” appearing below this string were probabilistically reinforced whenever T did not appear. The letter F anywhere in the three‐character string either strongly predicted the occurrence of the target letter T , in two conditions, or predicted its nonoccurrence, in a third. This manipulation of the frequency with which the familiar letter F predicted T was shown to change the function relating probability of a correct peck at the symbol “?” to the number of F s in the string. This effect may be interpreted as an instance of the phenomenon where an organism's acquired knowledge changes what it sees.