title: Effects of conditioning history on selective stimulus control by elements of compound discriminative stimuli.
abstract: Effects of prior discrimination training on stimulus control by color and shape dimensions of compound stimuli were studied with college students. In Phase 1, single-stimulus discrimination training was conducted for two values of color and shape. Phase 2 discrimination training employed two 2-dimensional compound stimuli composed of the color and shape stimuli trained in Phase 1. For conflict-compound stimuli, the stimulus-response-consequence contingency was altered between phases for one stimulus dimension (target dimension), but not for the other, non-target, dimension. Level of congruence (100%, 25%, and 0%) of the contingency for the target dimension between phases was manipulated across groups. When each stimulus value was tested in Phase 3, level of Phase-2-consistent responding to the target dimension varied with level of Phase-1-to-Phase-2 congruence. In Experiment 2, training history for the non-target dimension was altered across three conditions: (a) Correlated with reinforcement, as in Experiment 1, (b) No-Training, or (c) Not-Correlated. Phase-2-consistent responding to the target cue in Phase 3 was lower under the latter conditions than under the Correlated condition, indicating that the non-target dimension modulated control by the target dimension, consistent with stimulus competition. The data suggest elemental, rather than configural processing of the compound stimuli during Phase 2.
authors: Institute for Children with Autism and Related Disorders and Queens College of the City University of New York, Psychology Department, Flushing, NY 11367, USA. carolyn.ryan@verizon.net
authors: Carolyn S
authors: CS
authors: Ryan
authors: Nancy S
authors: NS
authors: Hemmes
authors: Bruce L
authors: BL
authors: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003116:Color; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult