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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1978 Sep;30(2):153–162. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1978.30-153

Temporal factors influencing the pigeon's successive matching-to-sample performance: sample duration, intertrial interval, and retention interval1

Keith R Nelson, Edward A Wasserman
PMCID: PMC1332710  PMID: 16812094

Abstract

A successive matching-to-sample procedure that entails the sequential presentation of sample and test stimuli and the monitoring of response rates in a go/no-go discrimination of matching and nonmatching stimuli was studied as an alternative to the familiar delayed-matching paradigm of animal short-term memory. Three within-subject experiments studied the effects of sample duration (1 to 12 seconds), intertrial interval (5 to 50 seconds), and retention interval (1 to 50 seconds) on the pigeon's successive-matching performance. The results revealed that retention was (a) an increasing function of sample duration and intertrial interval, and (b) a decreasing function of retention interval. These results were in accord with those of more traditional short-term memory paradigms, and reveal the suitability of the successive-matching procedure for studying memory processes.

Keywords: short-term memory, matching to sample, successive stimulus presentation, discriminative control, sample duration, intertrial interval, retention interval, key peck, pigeons

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Selected References

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