TY - JOUR
T1 - Occasion setting in Pavlovian ambiguous target discriminations
AU - Bueno, José Lino Oliveira
AU - Holland, Peter C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was performed at Duke University while JLOB was on study leave there and PCH was on faculty. It was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to PCH and from the Fulbright Foundation to JLOB. We thank Marie Crock for serving as one of the behavioral observers (MAC), and for other technical assistance.
PY - 2008/11
Y1 - 2008/11
N2 - Rats were trained in a Pavlovian serial ambiguous target discrimination, in which a target cue was reinforced if it was preceded by one stimulus (P → T+) but was not reinforced if it was preceded by another stimulus (N → T-). Test performance indicated that stimulus control by these features was weaker than that acquired by features trained within separate serial feature positive (P → T+, T-) and serial feature negative (N → W-, W+) discriminations. The form of conditioned responding and the patterns of transfer observed suggested that the serial ambiguous target discrimination was solved by occasion setting. The data are discussed in terms of the use of retrospective coding strategies when solving Pavlovian serial conditional discriminations, and the acquisition of special properties by both feature and target stimuli.
AB - Rats were trained in a Pavlovian serial ambiguous target discrimination, in which a target cue was reinforced if it was preceded by one stimulus (P → T+) but was not reinforced if it was preceded by another stimulus (N → T-). Test performance indicated that stimulus control by these features was weaker than that acquired by features trained within separate serial feature positive (P → T+, T-) and serial feature negative (N → W-, W+) discriminations. The form of conditioned responding and the patterns of transfer observed suggested that the serial ambiguous target discrimination was solved by occasion setting. The data are discussed in terms of the use of retrospective coding strategies when solving Pavlovian serial conditional discriminations, and the acquisition of special properties by both feature and target stimuli.
KW - Ambiguous target
KW - Discrimination learning
KW - Occasion setting
KW - Pavlovian conditioning
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U2 - 10.1016/j.beproc.2008.07.001
DO - 10.1016/j.beproc.2008.07.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 18657599
AN - SCOPUS:53149094633
SN - 0376-6357
VL - 79
SP - 132
EP - 147
JO - Behavioural Processes
JF - Behavioural Processes
IS - 3
ER -