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

Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect01:26

Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect

The similarity-dissimilarity effect, a fundamental concept in social psychology, explains how interpersonal similarities and differences influence attraction and social interactions. This effect is supported by three key psychological perspectives: balance theory, social comparison theory, and consensual validation.Balance Theory and Cognitive ConsistencyBalance theory, developed by Fritz Heider, posits that individuals seek cognitive consistency in their relationships. When two people share...
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
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...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

A psychological-scaling approach to unraveling the nature of Pigeons' categorization of natural visual objects.

Psychological review·2026
Same author

Nonnumerical stimuli exert surprisingly strong behavioral control in an unconstrained numerical discrimination learning task.

Cognition·2026
Same author

Variability, stability, and the law of effect.

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

Decoupling Design from Darwinian and Skinnerian Selection.

Perspectives on behavior science·2026
Same author

Focused and distributed: Diverse attentional profiles in pigeon category learning.

Learning & behavior·2026
Same author

Categorization of echocardiograms by humans and pigeons.

Frontiers in psychology·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 17, 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

Humans deploy diverse strategies in learning same-different discrimination tasks.

Leyre Castro1, Edward A Wasserman

  • 1Department of Psychology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. leyre-castroruiz@uiowa.edu

Behavioural Processes
|October 18, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Variability discrimination in same-different tasks is crucial. Training with more items (16-item arrays) significantly improved learning and performance compared to fewer items (2-item arrays), suggesting array variability aids conceptualization.

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

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 17, 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

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Perceptual Learning

Background:

  • Variability discrimination is considered fundamental to same-different conceptualization.
  • Previous studies utilized 16-item arrays, potentially biasing participants towards perceptual variability strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of training array size (2 vs. 16 items) on same-different discrimination learning.
  • To determine if array variability influences the strategies employed and learning outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Two groups were trained on same-different discrimination tasks using either 2-item or 16-item arrays.
  • Participants learned arbitrary responses without explicit instruction on 'sameness' or 'differentness'.
  • Performance was assessed by learning success, accuracy, response time, and strategy analysis (Categorical vs. Continuous).

Main Results:

  • Group 16 (16-item arrays) showed significantly higher learning rates (79% vs. 48%) and faster, more accurate performance than Group 2 (2-item arrays).
  • A large difference in variability (entropy) between same and different arrays facilitated task learning.
  • Group 16 exhibited both Categorical and Continuous performance patterns, while Group 2 showed a Categorical pattern and a novel 'inclusive sameness' strategy.

Conclusions:

  • The degree of variability between stimuli arrays significantly impacts the learning of same-different discriminations.
  • Learners may employ diverse strategies, including novel ones, when faced with varying levels of perceptual complexity.
  • Findings underscore the importance of stimulus array properties in shaping cognitive strategy development.