Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction01:24

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

Generalization, discrimination, and extinction are key concepts in operant conditioning that influence how behaviors are learned and maintained.
Generalization occurs when a behavior reinforced in one context is performed in similar situations. For instance, a student who studies diligently for calculus and receives excellent grades might apply the same study habits to psychology and history, expecting similar results. Generalization shows how learning in one setting can influence behavior in...
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination02:55

Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice toward people who are different. Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who are...
Instinctive Drift01:05

Instinctive Drift

Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies02:09

Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies

When we hold a stereotype about a person, we have expectations that he or she will fulfill that stereotype. A self-fulfilling prophecy is an expectation held by a person that alters his or her behavior in a way that tends to make it true. When we hold stereotypes about a person, we tend to treat the person according to our expectations. This treatment can influence the person to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming our stereotypic beliefs. Research by Rosenthal and...
Associative Learning01:27

Associative Learning

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...
Frequency-dependent Selection01:21

Frequency-dependent Selection

When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.Positive Frequency-Dependent SelectionIn positive...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Predicting continuous outcomes: Some new tests of associative approaches to contingency learning.

PLoS computational biology·2026
Same author

Prediction-based sensory attenuation is related to prediction-based motor attenuation.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026
Same author

Environmental Context Modulates Habituation of Visually Evoked Defensive Behavior.

eNeuro·2026
Same author

Acquisition and extinction of conditioned action tendencies in the motor cortex.

Neuroscience·2026
Same author

The partial reinforcement extinction effect: Learning about trial sequences or time to reinforcement.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition·2026
Same author

Information, certainty, and learning.

eLife·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
07:34

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

Negative patterning is easier than a biconditional discrimination.

Justin A Harris1, Evan J Livesey, Saba Gharaei

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. justinh@psych.usyd.edu.au

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes
|October 29, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Rats learned positive patterning faster than negative patterning. However, negative patterning was learned more effectively than the biconditional schedule in a separate rat group, impacting stimulus representation models.

More Related Videos

An Operant Intra-/Extra-dimensional Set-shift Task for Mice
08:35

An Operant Intra-/Extra-dimensional Set-shift Task for Mice

Published on: January 22, 2016

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans
11:09

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans

Published on: July 17, 2021

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
07:34

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

An Operant Intra-/Extra-dimensional Set-shift Task for Mice
08:35

An Operant Intra-/Extra-dimensional Set-shift Task for Mice

Published on: January 22, 2016

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans
11:09

RBDT: A Computerized Task System based in Transposition for the Continuous Analysis of Relational Behavior Dynamics in Humans

Published on: July 17, 2021

Area of Science:

  • Behavioral neuroscience
  • Animal learning and behavior
  • Cognitive psychology

Background:

  • Understanding how animals represent and learn from complex stimuli is crucial for cognitive modeling.
  • Patterning schedules, both positive and negative, are fundamental paradigms for studying associative learning.
  • Biconditional discrimination tasks also probe complex stimulus-response associations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the acquisition rates and effectiveness of negative patterning versus biconditional discrimination learning in rats.
  • To investigate how concurrent positive and negative patterning schedules influence learning.
  • To provide empirical data for refining computational models of stimulus representation.

Main Methods:

  • Two groups of rats were trained in a magazine approach paradigm over 50 days.
  • Group 1 received concurrent positive and negative patterning schedules with four stimuli (A+, B+, AB-, C-, D-, CD+).
  • Group 2 was trained on a biconditional schedule using the same stimuli (AB+, CD+, AC-, BD-).

Main Results:

  • Rats in Group 1 acquired the positive patterning schedule significantly faster than the negative patterning schedule.
  • Despite slower acquisition, Group 1 learned the negative patterning schedule more effectively than Group 2 learned the biconditional schedule.
  • Learning efficiency differed between the two types of complex discrimination tasks.

Conclusions:

  • The findings suggest differential learning efficiencies for various complex associative structures.
  • Negative patterning may engage distinct or more robust stimulus representation mechanisms compared to biconditional learning.
  • Results inform theoretical models of how animals represent and process multimodal or compound stimuli.