Núcleo de Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém-PA, Brazil.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2011 May;95(3):387-98. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2011.95-387.
This paper reports use of sample stimulus control shaping procedures to teach arbitrary matching-to-sample to 2 capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). The procedures started with identity matching-to-sample. During shaping, stimulus features of the sample were altered gradually, rendering samples and comparisons increasingly physically dissimilar. The objective was to transform identity matching into arbitrary matching (i.e., matching not based on common physical features of the sample and comparison stimuli). Experiment 1 used a two-comparison procedure. The shaping procedure was ultimately effective, but occasional high error rates at certain program steps inspired a follow-up study. Experiment 2 used the same basic approach, but with a three-comparison matching task. During shaping, the monkey performed accurately until the final steps of the program. Subsequent experimentation tested the hypothesis that the decrease in accuracy was due to restricted stimulus control by sample stimulus features that had not yet been changed in the shaping program. Results were consistent with this hypothesis, thus suggesting a new approach that may transform the sample stimulus control shaping procedure from a sometimes useful laboratory tool to a more general approach to teaching the first instance of arbitrary matching performances to participants who show protracted difficulties in learning such performances.
本文报告了使用样本刺激控制塑造程序来教授 2 只卷尾猴（Cebus apella）任意匹配样本的方法。该程序从身份匹配样本开始。在塑造过程中，样本的刺激特征逐渐改变，使得样本和比较刺激变得越来越不相似。目标是将身份匹配转变为任意匹配（即，不是基于样本和比较刺激的共同物理特征的匹配）。实验 1 使用了两个比较程序。塑造程序最终是有效的，但在某些程序步骤中偶尔会出现高错误率，这激发了后续的研究。实验 2 使用了相同的基本方法，但使用了三个比较匹配任务。在塑造过程中，猴子在程序的最后几步之前表现准确。随后的实验测试了以下假设：准确性的下降是由于对尚未在塑造程序中改变的样本刺激特征的限制刺激控制所致。结果与该假设一致，因此提出了一种新的方法，该方法可以将样本刺激控制塑造程序从有时有用的实验室工具转变为更一般的方法，用于教授那些在学习此类表现方面存在长期困难的参与者的第一次任意匹配表现。
