Graduate Program in Neuroscience and Behavior, Federal University of Pará (UFPA), Brazil.
University of Massachusetts Medical School.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2021 Nov;116(3):332-343. doi: 10.1002/jeab.720. Epub 2021 Oct 5.
In studies of simple and conditional discrimination, procedures are needed to measure those aspects of stimuli that control behavior. The blank comparison procedure is one such procedure. It was designed explicitly for assessing S+ and S- functions when discriminative stimuli are presented simultaneously. In this procedure, a neutral stimulus serves sometimes as S+ and sometimes as S-. Its discriminative function is defined in relation to other stimuli in the display. The present study aimed to prepare 2 infant female capuchin monkeys for the effective use of the blank comparison procedure in a simple discrimination task. First, simple discrimination training was applied up to a stable accuracy criterion of ≥90%. This training was followed by the replacement of S+ and then of S- stimuli with new stimuli. Ultimately, trials with the blank comparison were introduced. Following this sequence, both monkeys immediately displayed highly accurate blank-comparison performances without the need for stimulus control shaping or other preparatory discrimination training. Thus, this procedure sequence may be an efficient, effective method for establishing blank-comparison baselines for experimental analyses of S+/S- discriminative functions and perhaps for other applications in teaching simple and conditional discrimination performances to this species and others.
在简单和条件辨别研究中，需要有程序来测量控制行为的刺激方面。空白比较程序就是这样一种程序。它是专门为评估同时呈现辨别刺激时的 S+ 和 S- 功能而设计的。在这个程序中，中性刺激有时作为 S+，有时作为 S-。它的辨别功能是相对于显示中的其他刺激来定义的。本研究旨在为 2 只雌性幼年卷尾猴准备有效使用简单辨别任务中的空白比较程序。首先，应用简单辨别训练，直到达到稳定的准确率标准≥90%。然后，用新的刺激物替代 S+和 S-刺激物。最终，引入了空白比较试验。按照这个顺序，两只猴子立即表现出了高度准确的空白比较表现，而不需要进行刺激控制塑造或其他预备辨别训练。因此，这种程序序列可能是一种有效的方法，用于为 S+/S-辨别功能的实验分析建立空白比较基线，也可能用于该物种和其他物种的简单和条件辨别性能的其他应用。
