Roles of the qualities and locations of stimuli and responses in simple associative learning. The quality-location hypothesis.
The Quality-Location Phenomenon is defined by the previous research of Lawicka (1964 and 1969) in which dogs easily learn go/no-go tasks to differences in stimulus quality and go-left/go-right tasks to differences in stimulus location whereas the opposite pairings of tasks and stimulus attributes are difficult to learn. The Lawicka-Konorski explanation in terms of drive differentiation and response selection is described, and a new hypothesis, the Quality-Location Hypothesis, is offered. This hypothesis states that the quality of a stimulus best serves as a cue for the quality of a response, whereas the location of a stimulus best serves as a cue for the location of a response. The evidence for the hypothesis is reviewed, and experimental considerations for its evaluation are mentioned.
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D001307:Auditory Perception; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004285:Dogs; D006815:Hunger; D007858:Learning; D009949:Orientation; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning