Simultaneous discrimination and matching-to-sample with numerosity stimuli.
Item
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Title
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Simultaneous discrimination and matching-to-sample with numerosity stimuli.
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Identifier
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AAI9521286
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identifier
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9521286
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Creator
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Kilchenmann, Silvia.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Donald E. Mintz
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Experimental | Psychology, Behavioral | Psychology, Psychobiology
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Abstract
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Studies of conceptual behavior in pigeons using conditional discrimination procedures have reported differences in rate and the extent to which identity and symbolic relations are learned. This finding is commonly attributed to differences in stimulus discriminability. In the present thesis, pigeons were trained in a series of two-key simultaneous and three-key matching-to-sample procedures. The discriminations were based on elements in the stimulus display. In identity matching, the elements were asterisks. In symbolic matching, solid color symbolic equivalents were used. All non-symbolic stimuli differed in number of elements only. In Experiments 1 and 3, identity-matching and identity-matching with symbolic-matching trials were conducted. In Experiment 2, the discriminability of the stimuli was assessed with simultaneous discriminations. On some trials, stimuli with a novel element type were used, effecting a change in number-related differences between the comparison stimuli. Experiment 3 re-examined the acquisition of a conditional response with the procedure used in Experiment 1, except that symbolic-matching trials were added in each session. The results of Experiment 1 showed that subjects did not learn to match identity although they discriminated between stimuli in a simultaneous discrimination test. In Experiment 2, all subjects discriminated stimuli that differed by as few as two elements. On trials with two element types, birds reinforced for responding to numerically smaller stimuli performed better when the correct response was to the novel element. Birds responding to numerically larger stimuli performed better when the correct response was to the familiar element. In Experiment 3, rate and degree of acquisition differed between symbolic- and identity-matching trials. All birds rapidly learned to match symbolically. Center-key-symbolic matching was accurately learned. Compared to symbolic-matching, the rate of learning to match identity was slower and the extent to which the relationship was learned inferior. These data suggest that unknown differences in processing invoked the observed behavioral differences between the two procedures. Thus, the failure to match identity was not a function of stimulus discriminability. The differences in rate and extent of acquisition was not due to the number of associations learned.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
