Occasion setting during a spatial-search task with pigeons

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Animal Behavior

Background:

• Occasion setters (OS) are stimuli that signal the conditional relationship between other stimuli and a response.
• Understanding how OS influence spatial learning and memory is crucial in cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if occasion setters (OS) can set the occasion for responding to a landmark in a spatial task.
• To evaluate the role of OS in facilitating landmark-controlled spatial responding in pigeons.

Main Methods:

• Pigeons were trained on a spatial task where a colored background display (OS) signaled the contingency between a visual patterned stimulus (landmark; LM) and a rewarded response location.
• Standard OS tests, including transfer tests and post-training extinction of the OS, were conducted.
• Experiments varied the spatial relationships and training histories of landmarks and OS to assess their effects.

Main Results:

• Transfer tests showed that landmarks paired with their trained OS elicited more responding than those on transfer tests or landmark-only trials.
• Pigeons demonstrated spatial control of responding by the landmark, indicating effective learning of spatial relationships.
• Post-training extinction of an OS did not affect its facilitation or spatial control during subsequent trials, suggesting robust learning.

Conclusions:

• Occasion setters effectively facilitate responding to landmarks in spatial tasks.
• Landmarks, when signaled by OS, gain control over the location of responses.
• The findings provide the first evaluation of conditional control of spatial information by landmarks using standard occasion setting tests.