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Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study.

Héctor O Camarena¹, Óscar García-Leal^2,3, Julieta Delgadillo-Orozco¹

¹Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones en Comportamiento, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Frontiers in Psychology

|April 17, 2023

Summary

Probabilistic reinforcement made transitive inference (TI) difficult for pigeons. Only one pigeon successfully learned TI, suggesting associative strength and positional ordering impact this cognitive process.

Keywords:

Symbolic Distance Effect associative strength probabilistic reinforcement serial position effect transitive inference

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Animal Behavior
Neuroscience

Background:

Transitive inference (TI) is a logical reasoning process where a relationship between items can be inferred (e.g., if A>B and B>C, then A>C).
TI has been demonstrated in various species using simultaneous discrimination tasks, but its complexity under probabilistic reinforcement is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effects of probabilistic reinforcement on transitive inference (TI) in pigeons (Columba Livia).
To determine if associative strength and positional ordering influence TI performance under uncertain reward conditions.

Main Methods:

Five pigeons were trained on a simultaneous discrimination task with probabilistic reinforcement (0.7 for positive stimuli, 0.3 for negative stimuli).
The task involved a linear series of stimuli (A>B>C>D>E), and TI was assessed by testing preferences between non-adjacent stimuli (e.g., B>D).

Main Results:

Only one out of five pigeons successfully reached the discrimination criterion for C+D-.
The pigeon that solved the C+D- discrimination was the only one capable of learning TI.
Correct response ratios did not predict performance on the B>D test, indicating TI was disrupted by probabilistic reinforcement.

Conclusions:

Probabilistic reinforcement significantly disrupts transitive inference (TI) in pigeons.
TI performance appears to be influenced by both associative strength and the positional ordering of stimuli.
Findings contribute to understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying TI and support both associative and ordinal representation accounts.