title: Emergent relations in pigeons following training with temporal samples.
abstract: In two experiments, we investigated emergent conditional relations in pigeons using a symbolic matching-to-sample task with temporal stimuli as the samples and hues as the comparisons. Both experiments comprised three phases. In Phase I, pigeons learned to choose a red keylight (R) but not a green keylight (G) after a 1-s signal. They also learned to choose G but not R after a 4-s signal. In Phase II, correct responding consisted of choosing a blue keylight (B) after a 4-s signal and a yellow keylight (Y) after a 16-s signal. Comparisons G and B were both related to the same 4-s sample, whereas comparisons R and Y had no common sample. In Phase III, R and G were presented as samples, and B and Y were presented as the comparisons. The choice of B was correct following G, and the choice of Y was correct following R. If a relation between comparisons that shared a common sample were to emerge, then responding to B given G would be more likely than responding to Y given R. The results were generally consistent with this prediction, suggesting, for the first time in pigeons, the emergence of novel relations that involve temporal stimuli as nodal samples.
authors.affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. huziwara.edson@gmail.com
authors.forename: Edson M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Huziwara
authors.forename: Saulo M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Velasco
authors.forename: Gerson Y
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Tomanari
authors.forename: Deisy G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Armando D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Machado
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D010856:Columbidae; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D013998:Time Perception