title: Evidence for the utilization of distinctive features in nonlinear discrimination problems.
abstract: There is evidence that in human Pavlovian conditioning positive patterning (A-, B-, AB+) as well as negative patterning (A+, B+, AB-) are solved by applying abstract rules. In the present report we further investigated how humans solve patterning discriminations by conducting two Go/NoGo reaction time experiments that utilized the stimulus probability effect: stimuli presented with a low probability of occurrence elicit larger pupil dilations than those presented with a high frequency. In decreasing the ratio of compound and elemental trials from 1/1 (24 A, 24 B, 48 AB) in Experiment 1 to 1/2 (32 A, 32 B, 32 AB) in Experiment 2 we manipulated stimulus probability. The results of both experiments indicate that humans utilize distinctive features such as number information in order to classify the stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, D-35032 Marburg, Germany. reinharg@mailer.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reinhard
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lachnit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology