PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M E BITTERMAN

Publications and source records attributed to M E BITTERMAN.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1965

PROBABILITY-LEARNING BY THE TURTLE.

Tested in a two-choice situation, the painted turtle, Chrysemys picta picta, shows random probability-matching in visual problems and in confounded visual-spatial problems, but only maximizing or nonrandom matching (reward-following) in spatial problems. The results are compared with those of analogous experiments on fish, bird, and mammal.

Animals↗
PubMed1964

FURTHER EXPERIMENTS ON PROBABILITY-MATCHING IN THE PIGEON.

In a discrete-trials, two-key choice situation, probability-learning by pigeons was studied under a variety of training conditions. Matching was found in simultaneous and in successive problems, but a spatial problem produced only maximizing. In the simultaneous problem, noncorrection produced maximizing, while correction produced matching. Guidance produced maximizing when the animals were required to earn each opportunity for choice by pecking a center key on FR-5, but matching when the center key was not used. In a discrete-trials one-key situation, with latency as the measure, frequency and probability of reinforcement were varied independently. Differences in probability produced differences in latency of response, but differences in frequency did not.

Animals↗
PubMed1963

General activity as instrumental: application to avoidance training.

Some data on Sidman avoidance in the pigeon are presented to illustrate a technique of instrumental training which places minimal restriction upon the form of the reinforced response. The effect of a warning signal is demonstrated, and the course of discrimination-reversal is described.

Animals↗
PubMed1963

Sidman avoidance in the fish.

Goldfish trained in a shuttle box under conditions in which changing compartments postponed shock for 20 sec showed a substantial, negatively accelerated increase in rate of crossing. That the avoidance-contingency was responsible for the change in behavior is suggested by the fact that no significant increase in rate of crossing appeared in control animals which were paired with the experimentals and shocked whenever the experimental animals were shocked; there is some evidence, indeed, that the control animals were handicapped in their subsequent adjustment to the avoidance condition. The introduction of a warning stimulus (light) in the last 5 sec of the response-shock interval decreased the rate of crossing in the first 15 sec and increased the rate of crossing in the last 5 sec. Reducing the shock-shock interval from 20 sec to 2.5 sec had no marked effect. The results are compared with those obtained in analogous experiments with higher animals.

Animals↗