Abstract
Rats who had received extensive training on a free-operant bar-pressing discrimination were given discrimination reversal training with the bar removed and reinforcements noncontingent, and then were tested on the reversed problem with reinforcements again bar press-contingent. In comparison to control groups that, prior to exposure to the reversed-contingent problem, received either no noncontingent discrimination training or noncontingent discrimination training on the unreversed problem, these Ss showed marked transfer (both immediate transfer and savings) from the noncontingent to the contingent reversal problem. This result is related to previous findings and to several possible theoretical interpretations.
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References
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This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant 08799-02 to M. A. Trapold and in part by grants from NSF, NICHHD and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota to the Center for Research in Human Learning, University of Minnesota.
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Trapold, M.A. Reversal of an operant discrimination by noncontingent discrimination reversal training. Psychon Sci 4, 247–248 (1966). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342278
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342278