EFFECTS OF SODIUM PENTOBARBITAL ON SYMBOLIC MATCHING AND SYMBOLIC ODDITY PERFORMANCE

Pigeons’ conditional discrimination accuracy was equally disrupted by administering sodium pentobarbital when the discrimination required a three-alternative symbolic matching-to-sample task (if blue, select green; if green, select red; if red, select blue) as when it required a three-alternative symbolic oddity-from-sample task (if blue, select anything but green; etc.). This equivalence in disruption makes difficult interpretation of prior findings showing simpl matching to sample (if blue, select blue; if green, select green; etc.) to be more disrupted by drugs than was simple oddity (if blue, select anything but blue; etc.). © 1978, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.