Hall Nathaniel J, Smith David W, Wynne Clive D L
Department of Psychology, University of Florida.
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2015 May;103(3):484-97. doi: 10.1002/jeab.151. Epub 2015 Apr 24.
Domestic dogs are used to aid in the detection of a variety of substances such as narcotics and explosives. Under real-world detection situations there are many variables that may disrupt the dog's performance. Prior research on behavioral momentum theory suggests that higher rates of reinforcement produce greater resistance to disruption, and that this is heavily influenced by the stimulus-reinforcer relationship. The present study tests the Pavlovian interpretation of resistance to change using dogs engaged in an odor discrimination task. Dogs were trained on two odor discriminations that alternated every six trials akin to a multiple schedule in which the reinforcement probability for a correct response was always 1. Dogs then received several sessions of either odor Pavlovian conditioning to the S+ of one odor discrimination (Pavlovian group) or explicitly unpaired exposure to the S+ of one odor discrimination (Unpaired group). The remaining odor discrimination pair for each dog always remained an unexposed control. Resistance to disruption was assessed under presession feeding, a food-odor disruptor condition, and extinction, with baseline sessions intervening between disruption conditions. Equivalent baseline detection rates were observed across experimental groups and odorant pairs. Under disruption conditions, Pavlovian conditioning led to enhanced resistance to disruption of detection performance compared to the unexposed control odor discrimination. Unpaired odor conditioning did not influence resistance to disruption. These results suggest that changes in Pavlovian contingencies are sufficient to influence resistance to change.
家犬被用于协助检测多种物质，如毒品和爆炸物。在实际检测情况下，有许多变量可能会干扰犬的表现。先前关于行为动量理论的研究表明，更高的强化率会产生更大的抗干扰能力，而且这在很大程度上受刺激-强化物关系的影响。本研究使用参与气味辨别任务的犬来测试对变化的抗性的巴甫洛夫式解释。犬接受了两种气味辨别的训练，每六次试验交替进行，类似于一种多重程序，其中正确反应的强化概率始终为1。然后，犬接受了几轮对一种气味辨别中的S+进行气味巴甫洛夫条件反射训练（巴甫洛夫组），或者对一种气味辨别中的S+进行明确的非配对暴露训练（非配对组）。每只犬的另一组气味辨别对始终保持未暴露的对照状态。在训练前喂食、食物-气味干扰条件和消退情况下评估抗干扰能力，在干扰条件之间插入基线训练。在各实验组和气味对之间观察到了相当的基线检测率。在干扰条件下，与未暴露的对照气味辨别相比，巴甫洛夫条件反射导致检测性能的抗干扰能力增强。非配对气味条件反射并未影响抗干扰能力。这些结果表明，巴甫洛夫式意外情况的变化足以影响对变化的抗性。
