Some determiners of attention.
Three experiments, using a total of 13 pigeons, examined the stimulus control acquired by the separate components of a compound visual stimulus transilluminating the pecking key. Experiment I measured the control acquired by components of compound discriminative stimuli used in discrimination training. Experiment II sought to demonstrate the effect of pretraining a single stimulus discrimination on control acquired by each component in a compound stimulus discrimination. It also investigated the effect of training the compound stimulus discrimination before the single stimulus discrimination. Experiment III sought a continuous stimulus control function when pretraining stimulus intensities were varied. The results suggest that the extent to which a bird "pays attention" to a stimulus, defined in terms of the degree of stimulus control acquired by that stimulus, is determined by how well it previously learned to discriminate that stimulus from other stimuli.
D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D010856:Columbidae; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012718:Set, Psychology