Abstract
The present experiment demonstrated in a simultaneous discrete trial discrimination that the stimulus control of a rat’s leverpress response can be errorlessly transferred across stimulus modalities, i.e., from light to click location and from click to light location. Subsequent to acquisition of the original discrimination, the original and new discriminative stimuli were simultaneously presented for several sessions. Then the new discriminative stimulus was presented 3 sec prior to the onset of the original discriminative stimulus. Within the direction of transfer, e.g., from light to click location, the delay group emitted fewer trial and intertriai errors than the control group. As the new discriminative stimuli acquired control over responding, the response latency distributions were differentially affected. The results suggest that the transfer of control from the original to the new discriminative stimuli is mediated by the temporal aspects of the delay interval.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bloomfield, T. M. Behavioral contrast and relative reinforcement frequency in two multiple schedules.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1967,10, 151–158.
Blough, D. Interresponse time as a function of continuous variables: A new method and some data.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1963,6, 237–246.
Brown, C. H., &Rilling, M. E. Stimulus delay and the reduction of errors in the transfer of stimulus control.Animal Learning & Behavior, 1975,3, 21–27.
Marcucella, H. Signalled reinforcement in differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1974,22, 381–390.
Reynolds, G. S. Attention in the pigeon.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1961,4, 203–208.
Schusterman, R. Serial discrimination-reversal learning with and without errors by the California sea lion.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1966,9, 593–600.
Schusterman, R. Attention shift and errorless reversal learning by the California sea lion.Science, 1967,156, 833–835.
Terrace, H. S. Discrimination learning with and without “errors.”Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1963,6, 1–27 (a)
Terrace, H. S. Errorless transfer of a discrimination across two continua.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1963,6, 223–232. (b)
Terrace, H. S. Stimulus control. In W. K. Honig (Ed.),Operant behavior: Areas of research and application. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966.
Touchette, P. Transfer ot stimulus control: Measuring the moment of transferJournal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 1971,15, 347–354.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported in part by Grant 381-PS from Boston University Graduate School to the second author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MacDonall, J.S., Marcucella, H. Cross-modal transfer of stimulus control in the albino rat: A stimulus delay procedure. Animal Learning & Behavior 4, 341–346 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214062
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214062