Stimulus control of delayed matching in pigeons: Directed forgetting

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Animal behavior

Background:

• Delayed matching-to-sample tasks assess memory.
• Postsample cues (R-cue, F-cue) influence performance.
• F-cues can impair memory accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how F-cues affect delayed matching accuracy.
• Determine conditions influencing F-cue effects.
• Clarify the role of behavioral context in memory retrieval.

Main Methods:

• Pigeons trained on delayed matching-to-sample.
• Systematic variation of events following F-cues.
• Manipulation of cue control over behavior.

Main Results:

• Matching accuracy was poor when F-cues and R-cues controlled different behaviors.
• Matching accuracy was good when both cues controlled the same behavior.
• Comparison stimuli retrieve sample representations within specific behavioral contexts.

Conclusions:

• The behavioral context established by R-cues is crucial for memory retrieval.
• Response-produced stimuli play a contextual role in short-term memory.
• Findings support theories of contextual control in animal cognition.