STIMULUS SELECTION IN ANIMAL DISCRIMINATION LEARNING

REPORTS 3 EXPERIMENTS, INVOLVING BOTH INSTRUMENTAL AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCEDURES IN RATS AND RABBITS. IN EACH CASE A PARTIALLY REINFORCED CUE WAS FOUND TO BE A LESS EFFECTIVE STIMULUS IN ISOLATION WHEN IT HAD BEEN EXPERIENCED AS A COMMON CUE IN COMPOUNDS CONTAINING ELEMENTS MORE HIGHLY CORRELATED WITH REINFORCEMENT, THAN WHEN IT HAD BEEN EXPERIENCED IN SIMILAR COMPOUNDS WHICH DID NOT CONTAIN SUCH ELEMENTS. THE FINDINGS ARE MORE READILY INTERPRETABLE IN TERMS OF THOSE THEORIES WHICH INCORPORATE A BASIC STIMULUS-SELECTION PROCESS, THAN IN TERMS OF SIMPLE CONDITIONING-EXTINCTION THEORY. (17 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1968 American Psychological Association.