Chase Sheila, Schupak Cynthia, Ploog Bertram O
Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10065, United States.
Behav Processes. 2012 Mar;89(3):225-31. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2011.11.003. Epub 2011 Nov 29.
Six pigeons were trained first on a color then on a form discrimination; four other pigeons were trained first on form and then on color. One of two colors or one of two forms (sample stimuli) appeared in the center of a touch sensitive monitor for 5 pigeons and in the center and in 16 other locations for 5 other pigeons. A peck anywhere within the region in which the sample stimuli appeared produced two white disks (comparison stimuli), one on the left and one on the lower right corners of the screen. Correct left-right choices provided food. Although of no consequence, the location of pecks in presence of the sample was predictive of the pigeon's subsequent choice. Accuracy, choice of the correct comparison stimulus, was greater when the sample stimuli appeared in the center as well as 16 other locations than when it appeared only in the center. The presolution period, the period of chance accuracy prior to evidence of discrimination learning, was decreased on each task following training on the other task. This evidence of facilitation following an extra-dimensional shift was attributed to continued relevance of the conditions under which the first task was learned. The duration of the presolution period was inversely related to asymptotic accuracy-data accounted for by Heinemann's (1983) theory of information processing during the presolution period.
六只鸽子先接受颜色辨别训练，然后进行形状辨别训练；另外四只鸽子先进行形状辨别训练，然后进行颜色辨别训练。对于五只鸽子，两种颜色之一或两种形状之一（样本刺激）出现在触摸感应监视器的中央；对于另外五只鸽子，样本刺激出现在中央以及其他16个位置。在样本刺激出现的区域内的任何位置啄击都会产生两个白色圆盘（比较刺激），一个在屏幕的左上角，一个在右下角。正确的左右选择会提供食物。虽然无关紧要，但在样本出现时啄击的位置可预测鸽子随后的选择。当样本刺激出现在中央以及其他16个位置时，准确性（即选择正确比较刺激的能力）高于仅出现在中央时。在进行另一项任务的训练后，每项任务的预解决期（即辨别学习证据出现之前的随机准确性期）都缩短了。这种额外维度转换后的促进证据归因于学习第一项任务时的条件仍具有相关性。预解决期的持续时间与渐近准确性呈负相关——这一数据由海涅曼（1983年）关于预解决期信息处理的理论所解释。
