title: Colour versus quantity as cues in reverse-reward-competent squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus).
abstract: To assess the relative salience of colour and quantity cues, squirrel monkeys previously trained to reach for the smaller of two quantities of food in a reverse-reward contingency task received colour discrimination training. After initial failure to discriminate between two colours of dots under a differential reinforcement regime, they learned the task when the S- colour was associated with zero reward. The monkeys then showed good retention on the original reverse-reward task of 1 versus 4 with pairs of dots presented in S+ or S- colours. However, on "mismatch" trials of 1S- versus 4S+ , only 2 of 4 monkeys tested showed a preference--1 monkey chose based on quantity, the other based on colour. Individual differences and the possible roles of overshadowing and blocking are discussed.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK. jra1@stir.ac.uk
authors: James R
authors: JR
authors: Anderson
authors: Shunji
authors: S
authors: Awazu
authors: Kazuo
authors: K
authors: Fujita
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D012201:Reward; D012453:Saimiri