Three-Configuration Matching-to-Sample in the Pigeon

Authors

Alan Kamil, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Robert A. Sacks, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

5-1972

Comments

Published in JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR 17 (1972), 483-488. Copyright 1972 the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Inc.

Abstract

Pigeons were trained on a zero-delay matching-to-sample procedure during which only three of the four possible stimulus configurations were presented. Subsequently, all birds were exposed to all four configurations as a transfer test. A high degree of negative transfer from the three training configurations was obtained in Experiment 1. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that three-configuration training produced differential position-preference effects. During the transfer test, responding after one sample stimulus was apparently based on position, while responding after the other sample was based on color.