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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1976 Sep;26(2):301–314. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1976.26-301

Differential sample response schedules in the acquisition of conditional discriminations by pigeons1

Leila R Cohen, Thomas A Looney, John H Brady, Arlene F Aucella
PMCID: PMC1333517  PMID: 16811949

Abstract

Pigeons were trained on four matching-to-sample tasks with various schedule requirements in effect on the sample key. Differential sample-schedule requirements (a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates of 3 sec in the presence of one sample and a fixed-ratio 16 in the presence of the other) produced rapid rates of acquisition that did not differ across tasks. Nondifferential sample-schedule requirements (fixed-ratio 1, fixed-ratio 16 or a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates of 3 sec in the presence of both samples) produced slower rates of acquisition, which depended on the difficulty of the discriminations between samples and between comparisons. Patterns of stimulus and position preferences were influenced both by the comparison stimuli in each task and by the sample-schedule requirements. Detailed analyses of acquisition revealed frequent instances of complete differential sample control of comparison responding at intermediate levels of overall “accuracy”.

Keywords: conditional discriminations, matching to sample, differential sample response, pigeons

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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