Further Investigation of Responding Elicited by BC and C after A+, AB-, ABC+ Training

Abstract

Two experiments with pigeons explored conditioned keypeck responding to new visual targets after visual compound discrimination training. In the first experiment, pigeons were trained with an A+, AB−, ABC+, AD−, ADC+ task, in which stimulus A signalled food, stimulus compounds AB and AD signalled no food, and stimulus compounds ABC and ADC signalled food. According to both an elemental model (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972) and a configural model (Pearce, 1987) of Pavlovian conditioning, test compounds BC and DC should elicit less responding than should C alone. However, the birds responded more to BC and DC than to C. In the second experiment, another set of pigeons was trained with an A+, AB−, ABC+, AD−, ADE+ task, in which stimulus A signalled food, stimulus compounds AB and AD signalled no food, and stimulus compounds ABC and ADE signalled food. Contrary to the prediction of the Rescorla-Wagner model, keypeck responding was not less on BC and DE trials than on C and E trials in testing. However, B and D attenuated responding to E and C, respectively, when presented in compounds BE and DC. The Pearce model was able to accommodate these results.