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TRANSITIVE RESPONDING IN HOODED CROWS REQUIRES LINEARLY ORDERED STIMULI
Author(s) -
Lazareva Olga F.,
Smirnova Anna A.,
Bagozkaja Maria S.,
Zorina Zoya A.,
Rayevsky Vladimir V.,
Wasserman Edward A.
Publication year - 2004
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.2004.82-1
Subject(s) - reinforcement , transitive relation , psychology , associative learning , constant (computer programming) , associative property , audiology , communication , combinatorics , mathematics , cognitive psychology , social psychology , computer science , medicine , pure mathematics , programming language
Eight crows were taught to discriminate overlapping pairs of visual stimuli (A+ B‐, B+ C‐, C+ D‐, and D+ E‐). For 4 birds, the stimuli were colored cards with a circle of the same color on the reverse side whose diameter decreased from A to E (ordered feedback group). These circles were made available for comparison to potentially help the crows order the stimuli along a physical dimension. For the other 4 birds, the circles corresponding to the colored cards had the same diameter (constant feedback group). In later testing, a novel choice pair (BD) was presented. Reinforcement history involving stimuli B and D was controlled so that the reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios for the latter would be greater than for the former. If, during the BD test, the crows chose between stimuli according to these reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios, then they should prefer D; if they chose according to the diameter of the feedback stimuli, then they should prefer B. In the ordered feedback group, the crows strongly preferred B over D; in the constant feedback group, the crows' choice did not differ significantly from chance. These results, plus simulations using associative models, suggest that the orderability of the postchoice feedback stimuli is important for crows' transitive responding.