To separate effects of increased pattern-pattern contiguity from those of decreased pattern-background ratio, hooded rats discriminated between correct and incorrect patterns presented in temporal succession. Even though pattern-pattern contiguity was eliminated, decreased pattern-background ratio resulted in improved learning. However, the best learning for one problem was obtained with a 4-sq.-in. pattern superimposed on a 16-sq.-in. background. It was concluded that decreased pattern-background ratio contributes to better learning, but the pattern and background size for optimal learning varies as a function of the testing procedure and discrimination problem.
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