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Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jan 2020Texture is often used as a convenient stimulus dimension to study aspects of discrimination learning in rodents. However, the basis of texture discrimination learning is...
Texture is often used as a convenient stimulus dimension to study aspects of discrimination learning in rodents. However, the basis of texture discrimination learning is often left untested: Although learning could involve the whisker system, it could also be based on other senses (e.g., olfactory or visual). Here, we investigated whether mice use their whisker system to learn texture discriminations. Mice were placed in an apparatus illuminated with a dim red light, and the mice had to learn which of 2 sawdust-filled bowls contained a buried reward. The outer surfaces of the bowls were 3-D printed with different textures (grooved or smooth). Within a 60-min session, mice learned to dig in 1 bowl (e.g., grooved) rather than the other (e.g., smooth) to gain the reward. This texture discrimination and an equivalent odor discrimination were retained overnight (Experiments 1 and 2); and whisker trimming disrupted learning based on the texture of the bowls but not learning based on the odor of the sawdust in the bowls (Experiments 3 and 4). These results provide a secure basis upon which to investigate the behavioral and brain basis of texture learning in rodents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Discrimination Learning; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Olfactory Perception; Touch Perception; Vibrissae
PubMed: 31259576
DOI: 10.1037/xan0000212 -
Behavioural Processes Feb 2007Memory for time by animals appears to undergo a systematic shortening. This so-called choose-short effect can be seen in a conditional temporal discrimination when a... (Review)
Review
Memory for time by animals appears to undergo a systematic shortening. This so-called choose-short effect can be seen in a conditional temporal discrimination when a delay is inserted between the sample and comparison stimuli. We have proposed that this temporal shortening may result from a procedural artifact in which the delay appears similar to the intertrial interval and thus, produces an inadvertent ambiguity or 'instructional failure'. When this ambiguity is avoided by distinguishing the intertrial interval from the delay, as well as the samples from the delay, the temporal shortening effect and other asymmetries often disappear. By avoiding artifacts that can lead to a misinterpretation of results, we may understand better how animals represent time. An alternative procedure for studying temporal discriminations is with the psychophysical bisection procedure in which following conditional discrimination training, intermediate durations are presented and the point of subjective equality is determined. Research using the bisection procedure has shown that pigeons represent temporal durations not only as their absolute value but also relative to durations from which they must be discriminated. Using this procedure, we have also found that time passes subjectively slower when animals are required to respond to the to-be-timed stimulus.
Topics: Animals; Choice Behavior; Columbidae; Discrimination Learning; Memory; Time Perception
PubMed: 17110057
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2006.09.011 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jul 2019Animals optimize their behavior to maximize rewards by utilizing cues from the environment. In discrimination learning, cues signal when rewards can and cannot be earned...
Animals optimize their behavior to maximize rewards by utilizing cues from the environment. In discrimination learning, cues signal when rewards can and cannot be earned by making a particular response. In our experiment, we trained male mice to press a lever to receive a reward on a random interval schedule. We then introduced a prolonged tone (20, 40, or 80 sec), during which no rewards could be earned. We sought to test our hypothesis that the duration of the tone and frequency of reward during the inter-tone-intervals affect the informativeness of cues and led to differences in discriminative behavior. Learning was expressed as an increase in lever pressing during the intertrial interval (ITI) and, when the informativeness of the cue was high, animals also reduced their lever pressing during the tone. Additionally, we found that the depth of discriminative learning was linearly related to the informativeness of the cues. Our results show that the time-scale invariant information-theoretic definition of contingency applied to excitatory conditioning can also be applied to inhibitory conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; Discrimination Learning; Male; Mice; Reward; Time Factors
PubMed: 31021132
DOI: 10.1037/xan0000205 -
Behavioural Processes Nov 2023Same/different learning by pigeons has long been of interest to experimental psychologists. In one of these procedures, matching-to-sample, responses to a sample...
Same/different learning by pigeons has long been of interest to experimental psychologists. In one of these procedures, matching-to-sample, responses to a sample stimulus result in the presentation of two comparison stimuli, one of which matches the sample, the other of which does not, and choice of the matching stimulus is reinforced. Evidence of a matching concept has been found when transfer has been found to new stimuli. Given the transfer results, it is surprising that acquisition of two matching tasks (or two mismatching tasks), has not been found to be any faster than one matching and one mismatching task (i.e., two compatible tasks do not appear to facilitate each other). In the present experiment, we asked if matching acquisition involving three colors would be retarded if the correct response to a fourth color was not matching but was spatial (e.g., if the sample is red choose the red comparison, if the sample is green choose the green comparison, if the sample is yellow choose the yellow comparison, but if the sample is blue choose the left comparison). We found that acquisition of this task was slower than acquisition of a four color matching task (i.e., when the sample was blue, the blue comparison was correct). The results suggest that there is an interaction among matching associations, such that common rules facilitate learning compared with having to learn an inconsistent (spatial) rule. This result provides further evidence of the development of a matching concept by pigeons.
Topics: Animals; Discrimination Learning; Learning; Columbidae
PubMed: 37797821
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104947 -
Chemical Senses Sep 2015The present study compared olfactory discrimination learning in CD-1 mice, a widely used outbred strain of mice with that of C57BL/6J mice, one of the most widely used... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
The present study compared olfactory discrimination learning in CD-1 mice, a widely used outbred strain of mice with that of C57BL/6J mice, one of the most widely used inbred mouse strains. Using an automated olfactometer and a standard operant conditioning procedure, I found that CD-1 mice needed 60 trials to reach learning criterion in an initial 2-odor discrimination task. They improved in learning speed in subsequent discrimination tasks in which either the rewarded or the unrewarded stimulus was replaced for a new stimulus. C57BL/6J mice, in contrast, needed 120 trials to reach learning criterion in an initial 2-odor discrimination task and also needed significantly more trials than the CD-1 mice in 3 of the 4 subsequent discrimination tasks. Further, the results showed that discrimination learning performance of both mouse strains was largely unaffected by the odor stimuli used. The results of the present study demonstrate differences between an outbred and an inbred strain of mice with regard to odor discrimination learning, a classical measure of cognitive performance in comparative psychology. Thus, they emphasize the need to be careful with generalizing statements as to cognitive or sensory abilities of Mus musculus when inbred strains of mice are used.
Topics: Animals; Discrimination Learning; Mice; Mice, Inbred Strains; Odorants; Olfactory Bulb; Olfactory Perception
PubMed: 26123553
DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjv032 -
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of... Jan 1963Responses to S- ("errors") are not a necessary condition for the formation of an operant discrimination of color. Errors do not occur if discrimination training begins...
Responses to S- ("errors") are not a necessary condition for the formation of an operant discrimination of color. Errors do not occur if discrimination training begins early in conditioning and if S+ and S- initially differ with respect to brightness, duration and wavelength. After training starts, S-'s duration and brightness is progressively increased until S+ and S- differ only with respect to wavelength. Errors do occur if training starts after much conditioning in the presence of S+ has occurred or if S+ and S- differ only with respect to wavelength throughout training. Performance following discrimination learning without errors lacks three characteristics that are found following learning with errors. Only those birds that learned the discrimination with errors showed (1) "emotional" responses in the presence of S-, (2) an increase in the rate (or a decrease in the latency) of its response to S+, and (3) occasional bursts of responses to S-.
Topics: Conditioning, Classical; Discrimination Learning
PubMed: 13980667
DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-1 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Oct 2020Failure to learn and generalize abstract relational rules has critical implications for education. In this study, we aimed to determine which training conditions...
Failure to learn and generalize abstract relational rules has critical implications for education. In this study, we aimed to determine which training conditions facilitate relational transfer in a relatively simple (patterning) discrimination versus a relatively complex (biconditional) discrimination. The amount of training participants received had little influence on rates of relational transfer. Instead, trial-sequencing of the training contingencies influenced relational transfer in different ways depending on the complexity of the discrimination. Clustering instances of relational rules together during training improved transfer of both simpler patterning and more difficult biconditional rules, regardless of individual differences in cognitive reflection. However, blocking all trials of the same type together improved rule transfer only for biconditional discriminations. Individual differences in cognitive reflection were also more predictive of relational rule use under suboptimal training conditions. The results highlight the need for comprehensive accounts of relational learning to consider how learning conditions and individual differences affect the likelihood of engaging in learning relational structures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Discrimination Learning; Female; Humans; Individuality; Male; Practice, Psychological; Thinking; Transfer, Psychology; Young Adult
PubMed: 32364402
DOI: 10.1037/xlm0000848 -
Vision Research Jul 2018Through same-different judgements, we can discriminate an immense variety of stimuli and consequently, they are critical in our everyday interaction with the...
Through same-different judgements, we can discriminate an immense variety of stimuli and consequently, they are critical in our everyday interaction with the environment. The quality of the judgements depends on familiarity with stimuli. A way to improve the discrimination is through learning, but to this day, we lack direct evidence of how learning shapes the same-different judgments with complex stimuli. We studied unsupervised visual discrimination learning in 42 participants, as they performed same-different judgments with two types of unfamiliar complex stimuli in the absence of labeling or individuation. Across nine daily training sessions with equiprobable same and different stimuli pairs, participants increased the sensitivity and the criterion by reducing the errors with both same and different pairs. With practice, there was a superior performance for different pairs and a bias for different response. To evaluate the process underlying this bias, we manipulated the proportion of same and different pairs, which resulted in an additional proportion-induced bias, suggesting that the bias observed with equal proportions was a stimulus processing bias. Overall, these results suggest that unsupervised discrimination learning occurs through changes in the stimulus processing that increase the sensory evidence and/or the precision of the working memory. Finally, the acquired discrimination ability was fully transferred to novel exemplars of the practiced stimuli category, in agreement with the acquisition of a category specific perceptual expertise.
Topics: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attention; Bias; Discrimination Learning; Female; Humans; Male; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Photic Stimulation
PubMed: 29775623
DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2018.05.002 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jan 2024In conditional discrimination, the conditional stimulus or sample indicates which of two choice or comparison stimuli is associated with a reinforcer. Two hypotheses...
In conditional discrimination, the conditional stimulus or sample indicates which of two choice or comparison stimuli is associated with a reinforcer. Two hypotheses have been proposed concerning the role of the sample stimulus. According to Hull (1952), the sample and the response to the correct comparison form a stimulus-response chain. According to Skinner (1938), however, the sample serves as an occasion setter, setting the occasion for the choice of the correct comparison stimulus. In a conditional discrimination, if the sample stimulus forms part of a stimulus-response chain, then presenting the sample in the absence of the comparison stimuli should weaken the association. If the sample serves as an occasion setter, however, presenting the sample alone should not weaken its occasion-setting ability. In two experiments we tested these predictions. In Experiment 1, following conditional discrimination training with vertical and horizontal line samples and red and green comparison stimuli, we found that the presentation of the samples without the comparison stimuli (followed sometimes by a reinforcer) had little effect on conditional discrimination accuracy. In Experiment 2, two different houselights served as samples. When we presented the samples without comparison stimuli and without the reinforcers we found similar results. The results support the hypothesis that in conditional discrimination, the samples serve as occasion setters. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Animals; Discrimination Learning; Columbidae; Conditioning, Classical
PubMed: 37768588
DOI: 10.1037/xan0000367 -
Journal of Vision 2015Visual perceptual learning has been traditionally characterized by its specificity. Namely, learning transfers little to many untrained stimulus attributes. This result...
Visual perceptual learning has been traditionally characterized by its specificity. Namely, learning transfers little to many untrained stimulus attributes. This result of specificity is the basis for the inference that perceptual learning takes place in low-level visual areas in the brain. Recently, however, Xiao and colleagues (2008) demonstrated a double training technique that enabled complete transfer of learning in all tasks that were tested. This technique has since been applied to motion direction discrimination learning. Learning along one average direction has been found to transfer completely to a new average direction, along which only dot number discrimination had been trained (J. Y. Zhang & Yang, 2014). In the current study, we first repeated the J. Y. Zhang and Yang (2014) experiment in exact procedure, stimuli, and task. We then continued the double training to examine transfer in longer-term perceptual learning. To our surprise, in both our exact replication attempt and in our longer-term learning study, we could not find complete transfer. In fact, the transfer to the dot number discrimination direction was no greater than to an untrained control direction. We suggest that individual differences and subtle differences in experimental setup between J. Y. Zhang and Yang (2014) and our studies are too strong and common to determine whether or not the new double training technique can bring about complete transfer in motion discrimination learning.
Topics: Adult; Discrimination Learning; Female; Humans; Individuality; Male; Motion Perception; Sensitivity and Specificity; Spatial Learning
PubMed: 26230918
DOI: 10.1167/15.10.3