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INTERTRIAL SOURCES OF STIMULUS CONTROL AND DELAYED MATCHING‐TO‐SAMPLE PERFORMANCE IN HUMANS
Author(s) -
Williams Dean C.,
Johnston Mark D.,
Saunders Kathryn J.
Publication year - 2006
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.2006.67-01
Subject(s) - stimulus (psychology) , audiology , stimulus control , psychology , sample size determination , psychometric function , statistics , psychophysics , perception , mathematics , medicine , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , nicotine
Two experiments compared delayed matching‐to‐sample (DMTS) accuracy under 2 procedures in adults with mental retardation. In the trial‐unique procedure, every trial in a session contained different stimuli. Thus, comparison stimuli that were correct on one trial were never incorrect on other trials in that session (or vice versa). In the 2‐sample DMTS procedure, the same 2 comparison stimuli were presented on each trial, and their function changed quasi‐randomly across trials conditional upon the sample stimulus. Across 2 experiments, 7 of 8 subjects showed the highest overall accuracy under the trial‐unique procedure, and no subject showed consistently higher accuracy under the 2‐sample procedure. Negative, exponential decay functions fit to logit p values showed that this difference was due largely to the steeper delay‐mediated decline in sample control for the 2‐sample procedure. Stimulus‐control analyses indicated that, under the 2‐sample procedure, the selection of the comparison stimulus on Trial N was often controlled by the comparison stimulus selection on Trial N‐1 rather than the Trial‐N sample stimulus. This source of competing stimulus control is not present in trial‐unique procedures. Experiment 2 manipulated intertrial interval duration. There was a small but consistent increase in accuracy as a function of intertrial interval duration under the 2‐sample procedure, but not under the trial‐unique procedure.