RELATIONAL DISCRIMINATION BY PIGEONS IN A GO/NO-GO PROCEDURE WITH COMPOUND STIMULI: A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE

摘要

A goo-go procedure with compound stimuli typically establishes emergent behavior that parallels instructure and typical outcome that of conventional tests for symmetric, transitive, and equivalencerelations in normally capable adults. The present study employed a goo-go compound stimulusprocedure with pigeons. During training, pecks to two-component compounds A1B1, A2B2, B1C1, andB2C2 were followed by food. Pecks to compounds A1B2, A2B1, B1C2, and B2C1 re-started the 30-sstimulus presentation interval. The absence of pecking to those compounds for 30 s ended the trial.Subsequent tests presented these components in new spatial arrangements and/or in recombinativecompounds that together corresponded to conventional tests of symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence:BIA1, B2A2, C1B1, C2B2, A1C1, A2C2, CIA1, C2A2 vs. B1A2, B2A1, C1B2, C2B1, A1C2, A2C1, C1A2,C2A1 (positive vs. negative instances of symmetric, transitive, and equivalence relations). On tests forsymmetric relations, all pigeons behaved in a manner consistent with training on both positive instances(i.e., by responding) and on negative instances (i.e., by not responding). By contrast, the pigeons'behavior on tests for transitivity and equivalence was inconsistent with baseline training, thus failing toshow the recombinative discrimination performance that is typical of normally capable humans whentrained and tested using the goo-go procedure with compound stimuli.