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Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior logoLink to Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
. 1971 Nov;16(3):327–336. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1971.16-327

Discrimination of compound stimuli involving the presence or absence of a distinctive visual feature1

G William Farthing
PMCID: PMC1333933  PMID: 5150043

Abstract

Pigeons learned a free operant, go/no-go discrimination between stimuli produced by rapid alternation of different features on the response key. The 0° —B compound consisted of a vertical black line on a white background (the 0° feature) alternated with a blank white field (the B feature), with successive 0.75-sec feature on periods separated by 0.20-sec dark periods. Pecks at the alternating 0° and B features were recorded separately. When pecks at the 0°—B compound were reinforced and pecks at the B—B stimulus (repeated brief presentations of the B feature) were extinguished, the birds pecked more at the 0° feature than at the B feature in the 0°—B compound; subsequently, decremental line-tilt generalization gradients were obtained. When pecks at B—B were reinforced and pecks at 0°—B were extinguished, the rate of pecking at the 0° feature decreased to a low level much more rapidly than did the rate of pecking at the B feature in the 0°—B compound; incremental line-tilt gradients were obtained. Following training with pecks at 0°—B reinforced and pecks at 0°—0° extinguished, incremental line-tilt gradients were obtained, whereas the gradients were decremental following training with 0°—0° reinforced and 0°—B extinguished.

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Selected References

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

  1. Hearst E., Besley S., Farthing G. W. Inhibition and the stimulus control of operant behavior. J Exp Anal Behav. 1970 Nov;14(3 Pt 2 Suppl):373–409. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1970.14-s373. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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