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Conditional discrimination: the role of CS-alone trials
1Departamento de Psicologia e Educação-FFCLRP, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida dos Bandeirantes 3900, 14049-901 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
Behavioural Processes
|June 5, 2014
Summary
This study investigated if specific training trials are crucial for learning complex conditional discriminations. Results indicate that these "CS-alone" trials are not essential for acquiring serial feature positive and negative conditional discriminations.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Animal Learning
Background:
- Serial feature positive and negative conditional discrimination are complex learning tasks.
- The role of conditioned stimulus (CS)-alone trials in this learning is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the necessity of CS-alone trials for acquiring serial conditional discriminations.
- To investigate how different types of target-alone training influence discrimination performance.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using serial conditional discrimination procedures.
- Experiment 1 focused on an ambiguous target discrimination with various target-alone trials (T+, T-, T+T-, T0).
- Experiment 2 assessed the impact of these target-alone trials on discriminations with distinct target cues.
Main Results:
- The results did not provide evidence for an essential role of CS-alone trials in serial conditional discrimination acquisition.
- Different types of target-alone training did not significantly enhance or alter the fundamental learning process.
Conclusions:
- CS-alone trials are not a critical component for learning serial feature positive and negative conditional discriminations.
- The ambiguity of target cues and trial reinforcement proportions may influence learning, but CS-alone trials are not indispensable.
