Merritt Dustin J, Terrace Herbert S
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708-0999, USA.
J Comp Psychol. 2011 May;125(2):227-38. doi: 10.1037/a0021572.
If A > B, and B > C, it follows logically that A > C. The process of reaching that conclusion is called transitive inference (TI). Several mechanisms have been offered to explain transitive performance. Scanning models claim that the list is scanned from the ends of the list inward until a match is found. Positional discrimination models claim that positional uncertainty accounts for accuracy and reaction time patterns. In Experiment 1, we trained rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and humans (Homo sapiens) on adjacent pairs (e.g., AB, BC, CD, DE, EF) and tested them with previously untrained nonadjacent pairs (e.g., BD). In Experiment 2, we trained a second list and tested with nonadjacent pairs selected between lists (e.g., B from List 1, D from List 2). We then introduced associative competition between adjacent items in Experiment 3 by training 2 items per position (e.g., B₁C₁, B₂C₂) before testing with untrained nonadjacent items. In all 3 experiments, humans and monkeys showed distance effects in which accuracy increased, and reaction time decreased, as the distance between items in each pair increased (e.g., BD vs. BE). In Experiment 4, we trained adjacent pairs with separate 9- and 5-item lists. We then tested with nonadjacent pairs selected between lists to determine whether list items were chosen according to their absolute position (e.g., D, 5-item list > E, 9-item list), or their relative position (e.g., D, 5-item list < E, 9-item list). Both monkeys' and humans' choices were most consistent with a relative positional organization.
如果A大于B，且B大于C，那么逻辑上可以得出A大于C。得出该结论的过程称为传递性推理（TI）。人们提出了几种机制来解释传递性表现。扫描模型声称，列表是从两端向内扫描，直到找到匹配项。位置辨别模型声称，位置不确定性解释了准确性和反应时间模式。在实验1中，我们让恒河猴（猕猴）和人类（智人）对相邻的配对（如AB、BC、CD、DE、EF）进行训练，并用之前未训练过的非相邻配对（如BD）对他们进行测试。在实验2中，我们训练了第二个列表，并用在两个列表之间选择的非相邻配对（如列表1中的B、列表2中的D）进行测试。然后，在实验3中，我们通过在每个位置训练2个项目（如B₁C₁、B₂C₂），然后用未训练的非相邻项目进行测试，在相邻项目之间引入了关联竞争。在所有3个实验中，人类和猴子都表现出距离效应，即随着每对项目之间距离的增加（如BD与BE），准确性提高，反应时间缩短。在实验4中，我们用单独的9项和5项列表训练相邻配对。然后，我们用在两个列表之间选择的非相邻配对进行测试，以确定列表项目是根据其绝对位置（如D，5项列表>E，9项列表）还是相对位置（如D，5项列表<E，9项列表）被选择的。猴子和人类的选择都最符合相对位置组织。
