Transfer of discriminative control during stimulus fading conducted without reinforcement.

Abstract

Using trial-and-error training, eight pigeons did not learn to discriminate between 45° and 135° lines, but did learn to discriminate between red and green colors. Control by line tilt was induced by stimulus fading that did not include reinforcement while fading out the colors. After establishing the red-green discrimination, low-intensity lines were superimposed on colors and were gradually faded in. All of this was done using reinforcement. At the end of the line fade-in, the lines had not acquired control of responding. Finally, color intensity was gradually faded out in the absence of reinforcement, and the lines acquired discriminative control by six of the eight pigeons. Thus, reinforcement during the color fade-out was not necessary for the acquisition of discriminative control by the lines during fading. Acquisition of control by lines was attributed to overshadowing, the reduction of stimulus blocking by generalization, and the evocation of correct responding by the colors while the participants were attending to the lines. This last process was also responsible for the induction of discriminative control during sensory preconditioning, higher order conditioning, and response transfer in equivalence classes. Errors, however, were not correlated with discrimination learning during stimulus fading. Finally, transfer of control occurred very quickly with or without errors.