Twenty-eight pigeons were given discrimination training. Four groups were run in which for 0, 2, 4 and 9 sessions of training colour was an irrelevant cue and tone was relevant. Generalization tests were given in extinction; the training colour (C1) and another colour (C2) were presented with tone (T) and noise (N). Responding to these four stimulus combinations, TC1, TC2, NC1 and NC2, allowed the assessment of control by colour and tone. A reduction of control by colour and an increase in control by tone were found to be positively related to the amount of training with colour irrelevant. Tests showed a strong inverse relationship between control by colour and tone.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
GuttmanN.KalishH. I. (1956). Discriminability and stimulus generalization. J. exp. Psychol.51, 79–88.
2.
JenkinsH. M. (1962). Resistance to extinction when partial reinforcement. J. exp. Psychol.64, 441–50.
3.
MackintoshN. J. (1965). Selective attention in animal discrimination learning. Psychol. Bull.64, 124–50.
4.
MilesC. G. (1969). A demonstration of overshadowing in operant conditioning. Psychon. Sci.16, 139–40.
5.
MilesC. G.WestbrookR. F.LorimerP. W. (1969). Problem difficulty and the acquisition of control by an irrelevant feature in the pigeon. J. comp. physiol. Psychol.68, 249–53.
6.
MummaR.WarrenJ. M. (1968). Two cue discrimination learning by cats. J. comp. physiol. Psychol.66, 116–21.
7.
ReynoldsG. S. (1961). Attention in the pigeon. J. exp. Anal. Behav.4, 203–8.
8.
SutherlandN. S.HolgateV. (1966). Two cue discrimination learning in rats. J. comp. physiol. Psychol.61, 198–207.
