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The role of contingency in classical conditioning.

The assumption that classical conditioning depends on a contingent relation between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US), which was proposed some decades ago as an alternative to the traditional contiguity assumption, still is widely accepted as an empirical generalization, if no longer as a theoretical postulate. The first support for the contingency assumption was provided by experiments in which occasional CS-US pairings produced no response to the CS in random training--i.e., training in which the probability of the US was the same in the presence and absence of the CS. Those early experiments, the results of which too often are taken at face value, are reconsidered along with various later experiments that show conditioning, both of the CS and its context, in random training. The evidence suggests that CS-US contingency is neither necessary nor sufficient for conditioning and that the concept has long outlived any usefulness it may once have had in the analysis of conditioning.

Animals

A table of d' for M-alternative odd-man-out forced-choice procedures.

There is a class of multiple-alternative forced-choice psychophysical procedures in which the subject is required to identify which one of a number of stimuli differs from the remaining stimuli, without having to consider the direction or sign of the difference. A table giving values of the discrimination index d' as a function of the proportion of correct responses in such odd-man-out procedures was generated by numerical simulation. The table covers experiments with 3 to 32 alternative stimuli.

Attention

[Dependence of search activities on the probability of random execution of instrumental reaction].

The increase in rat search activity was found to develop in early stages of the learning when probability of random performance of instrumental reaction to light was equal to 0.25. This phenomenon was not depended on duration of conditioned signal and/or/of intersignal period at the invariable probability. The probability of random performance of instrumental reaction is suggested to determine search activity and to be able to influence leaning rate.

Animals

Choice with uncertain outcomes: conditioned reinforcement effects.

Pigeons responded on concurrent chains with equal initial- and terminal-link durations. In all conditions, the terminal links of one chain ended reliably in reinforcement; the terminal links on the alternative chain ended in either food or blackout. In Experiment 1, the terminal-link stimuli were correlated with (signaled) the outcome, and the durations of the initial and terminal links were varied across conditions. Preference did not vary systematically across conditions. In Experiment 2, terminal-link durations were varied under different stimulus conditions. The initial links were variable-interval 80-s schedules. Preference for the reliable alternative was generally higher in unsignaled than in signaled conditions. Preference increased with terminal-link durations only in the unsignaled conditions. There were no consistent differences between conditions with and without a common signal for reinforcement on the two chains. In the first series of conditions in Experiment 3, a single response was required in the initial links, and the stimulus conditions during 50-s terminal links were varied. Preference for the reliable outcome approached 1.0 in unsignaled conditions and was considerably lower (below .50 for 3 of 5 subjects) in signaled conditions. In a final series of signaled conditions with relatively long terminal links, preference varied with duration of the initial links. The results extend previous findings and are discussed in terms of the delay reduction signaled by terminal-link stimuli.

Animals

Dissociation of theories of choice by temporal spacing of choice opportunities.

Rats were trained on a discrete-trial version of a concurrent variable-interval (VI) variable-ratio (VR) schedule in which the relative reinforcement rates were varied across conditions. Subjects with the shorter intertrial interval (ITI) had a significant bias toward the VR alternative, as predicted by optimality theory, and were also more likely to choose the VI alternative with longer times since responses to the VI alternative, as predicted by momentary-maximizing theory. Subjects with the longer ITI failed to show either of these effects. Approximation to the matching law was greater with the longer ITI. Thus, matching is not derivative of the processes postulated by optimality or momentary-maximizing theory but instead is in competition with those processes.

Animals

Rule abstraction, item memory, and chunking in rat serial-pattern tracking.

Two studies used a stimulus tracking paradigm to test whether rats are sensitive to the rule-based formal properties of structured serial patterns. Hooded rats tracked 16-element patterns of flashing lights by pressing levers under an array of 6 indicator lights. In Experiment 1, rats tracked a pattern similar to one previously used with human subjects and yielded remarkably similar results. More errors and response omissions occurred at boundaries of structural "chunks" than within chunks, and errors often reflected anticipation of the next chunk or extrapolation of the preceding chunk. In Experiment 2, temporal "phrasing" cues encouraged different groups to encode a pattern as a series of either "runs" or "trills." Differential placement of pauses induced rats to encode different rule-based representations of the pattern. Results indicate that under appropriate conditions rats may encode a representation of formal structure when they learn organized response patterns.

Animals