Matching unrelated stimuli with same discriminative functions: training order effects

Area of Science:

• Behavioral psychology
• Animal cognition
• Learning theory

Background:

• Previous research established transfer of discriminative control and generalized matching in conditional control tasks.
• These phenomena occur when simple discriminations are trained before conditional control tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of training and testing order on transfer of discriminative control and generalized matching.
• To determine if the sequence of task acquisition influences the emergence of higher-order behavioral functions.

Main Methods:

• Experiment 1: Trained lower-order tasks before higher-order tasks, with varied testing orders.
• Experiment 2: Reversed the training order, training higher-order tasks before lower-order tasks.
• Utilized conditional discrimination and matching tasks with novel stimuli for testing.

Main Results:

• Transfer of discriminative functions and generalized matching reliably occurred only when lower-order contingency tasks were trained first.
• The order of testing did not significantly affect the observed transfer or matching.
• Training order critically influenced the development of stimulus control in higher-order tasks.

Conclusions:

• The sequence of training is a critical factor for establishing transfer of discriminative control and generalized matching.
• Lower-order learning must precede higher-order learning for these complex behavioral phenomena to emerge reliably.
• A stimulus-control framework can account for the observed effects of training order.