Psychopharmacologia

, Volume 36, Issue 4, pp 313–322 | Cite as

Discrimination of stimulus duration and d-amphetamine in pigeons: A psychophysical analysis

  • D. Alan Stubbs
  • John R. Thomas
Animal Studies

Abstract

Pigeons discriminated visual stimulus duration in a psychophysical choice procedure. Following short durations, one of two responses was reinforced; following long durations, the other response was reinforced. Discrimination accuracy decreased as a function of increasing dose level of d-amphetamine. Decrements in accuracy were greater for two of three pigeons following long-than following short-stimulus durations. Position response biases increased as dose level incraesed. Similar effects of the drug on behavior occurred over two temporal ranges of stimulus durations studied.

Key words

Operant Conditioning d-Amphetamine Discrimination Psychophysics 

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1974

Authors and Affiliations

  • D. Alan Stubbs
    • 1
  • John R. Thomas
    • 2
  1. 1.Psychology DepartmentUniversity of MaineOrono
  2. 2.Behavioral Sciences DepartmentNaval Medical Research InstituteBethesda

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