Conditioned reinforcement and complex discrimination: Can conditioned reinforcing value be specific to a complex of three cues?

Abstract

The present experiment is concerned with the nature of the cues that might acquire conditioned reinforcing value, and the ways in which such cues might interact with one another. Red and green colored keylights were differentially paired with food dependent upon the houselight context (A or B) and the trial type (training or choice/forced). The duration of the colored keylights was varied between groups in an attempt to manipulate the effectiveness of the short-term memory of trial-type cues at the trial’s end. The red and green stimuli were of 30 sec duration for Group 30 and of 3 sec duration for Group 3. The results indicated that the choices of the pigeons in Group 30 were influenced by the houselight context present and by the keylight color. The choices of the pigeons in Group 3 seemed to be influenced by the houselight context present, the keylight color, and the memory of trial-type cues. Memory cues for trial antecedents were not overshadowed by presumably more salient external houselight stimuli for the pigeons in Group 3. Two alternative explanations for the results are discussed, and determined to be unlikely based on the results of an earlier experiment. The present results are related to a model of the conditioned reinforcing value of momentary stimuli and of transmission of conditioned reinforcing value.