Reinforcement Effects in the Discrimination Learning of Burmese Cats 1

Abstract

6 Burmese cats were presented with 160 6-trial object discrimination problems. In half the problems a single object was presented on Trial 1 and paired with a second object on Trials 2 to 6. In the other half two objects were presented on all the trials. In both types of problems the stimulus chosen on Trial 1 was equally often rewarded and nonrewarded. Performance was superior when the initial choice was rewarded regardless of whether a single object or a pair of objects occurred. These results cannot be ascribed simply to stimulus preferences. It is suggested that both reinforcement condition and stimulus-oriented response tendencies determine discrimination performance. The differentiability of the stimuli probably affects the relative importance of these two factors and may account for species differences in discriminative performance.