Short-Term Visual Recognition Memory in Pigeons

Abstract

Recognition memory for lists of items was investigated in pigeons using a YES-NO recognition technique. Experiment I showed that increasing the exposure duration of the first item of a two-item list improved recognition for that item without impairing recognition of the second item. Experiment II showed that decreasing the inter-trial interval had no effect on correct YES responses but significantly increased the number of false YES responses. Experiment III showed that recognition for the last two items of a three-item list was no poorer than that for lists of only two items. Experiment IV showed that increasing the delay between presentation and test of a two-item list (from 0·25-1 s) had a more disruptive effect on recognition for the second than for the first item. The data from these four experiments support a model proposed by Roberts and Grant, according to which memory traces are independent, and decay as a negatively accelerated function of time. Experiments V, VI, and VII investigated recognition for lists of three, four, and five items, and found no evidence for a primacy effect, performance being a linear function of time since sample offset.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Donaldson

Glathe

(1969). Recognition memory for item and order information. Journal of Experimental Psychology 82, 557–60.

Francis

J. G. F.

Sutherland

N. S.

(1969). A system for controlling animal experiments on-line. In Moray

(Ed.), On-line Computing in Psychology Sheffield: University of Sheffield.

Grant

D. S.

(1975). Proactive interference in pigeon short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 1, 207–20.

Grant

D. S.

Roberts

W. A.

(1973). Trace interaction in pigeon short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology 101, 21–9.

Konorski

J. A.

(1959). A new method of physiological investigation of recent memory in animals. Bulletin de l'Academic Polonaise des Sciences, Serie de Sciences Biologiques 7, 115–9.

Maki

W. S.

Moe

J. C.

Bierley

C. M.

(1977). Short-term memory for stimuli, responses, and reinforcers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 3, 156–77.

McNicol

(1972). A Primer of Signal Detection Theory London: Allen & Unwin.

Monsell

(1978). Recency, immediate recognition memory, and reaction time. Cognitive Psychology 10, 465–501.

Nelson

K. R.

Wasserman

E. A.

(1978). Temporal factors influencing the pigeon's successive matching-to-sample performance: Sample duration, intertrial interval, and retention interval. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 30, 153–62.

10.

Roberts

W. A.

Grant

D. S.

(1974). Short-term memory in the pigeon with presentation time precisely controlled. Learning and Motivation 5, 393–408.

11.

Roberts

W. A.

Grant

D. S.

(1976). Studies of short-term memory in the pigeon using the delayed matching to sample procedure. In Medin

D. L.

Roberts

W. A.

Davis

R. T.

(Eds), Processes of Animal Memory Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

12.

Shimp

C. P.

(1976). Short-term memory in the pigeon: relative recency. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 25, 55–61.

13.

Shimp

C. P.

Moffitt

(1974). Short-term memory in the pigeon: Stimulus-response associations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 22, 507–12.

14.

Shimp

C. P.

Moffitt

(1977). Short-term memory in the pigeon: delayed-pair-comparison procedures and some results. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 28, 13–25.

15.

Sternberg

(1966). High-speed scanning in human memory. Science 153, 652–4.

16.

Thompson

R. K. R.

Herman

L. M.

(1977). Memory for lists of sounds by the bottlenosed dolphin: Convergence of memory processes with humans? Science 195, 501–3.

17.

Wagner

A. R.

(1976). Priming in STM: An information-processing mechanism for self-generated or retrieval-generated depression in performance. In Tighe

T. J.

Leaton

R. N.

(Eds), Habituation: Perspectives from Child Development, Animal Behavior, and Neurophysiology Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.

18.

Wagner

A. R.

Pfautz

P. L.

(1978). A bowed serial-position function in habituation of sequential stimuli. Animal Learning and Behavior 6, 395–400.

19.

White

K. G.

(1974). Temporal integration in the pigeon. British Journal of Psychology 65, 437–44.

20.

Whitlow

J. W.

(1975). Short-term memory in habituation and dishabituation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 1, 189–206.

21.

Wickelgren

W. A.

Norman

D. A.

(1966). Strength models and serial position in short-term recognition memory. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 3, 316–47.