title: The influence of landmark stability on control by occasion setters.
abstract: In an operant serial feature-positive procedure, an occasion setter (OSX) signals that a response will be reinforced in the presence of a second stimulus (e.g., a discriminative stimulus, A). During a transfer test, the OS is paired with a different discriminative stimulus. Experiment 1a tested transfer effects in a touchscreen-based spatial occasion setting task with pigeons. During training, four OSs (OSW, OSX, OSY, and OSZ) were paired on separate trials with landmark A (LMA) or B (LMB) and the opportunity for a reinforced response at one location to the immediate left (R1) or right (R2) of the LM (OSW→LMA:R1, OSX→LMA:R2, OSY→LMB:R1, OSZ→LMB:R2). Training also included non-reinforced trials of LMAand LMBalone (LMA- and LMB-) and trials of a non-modulated LM with R1and R2reinforced across separate trials (LMC:R1and LMC:R2). After training, the number and spatial location of responses during test trials of a LM paired with the same OS as in training did not differ reliably from transfer tests of an OS paired with a different, modulated LM (OSW→LMBand OSY→LMA), but did differ from transfer to the non-modulated LM (OSX→LMC). Experiment 1b utilized the same pigeons and training with LMBto test the degree to which the spatial stability of a LM influenced transfer. Retraining with LMAwas intended to establish it as a non-modulated, stable LM (LMA:R2). Subsequent tests with LMArevealed reduced modulation by the formerly trained OS (OSW), and complete disruption of modulation of spatial location during transfer with a different OS (OSY). These findings further our understanding of the conditions under which OSs may develop and transfer modulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, United States.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Cleland
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, United States.
authors.forename: Chad M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ruprecht
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, United States.
authors.forename: Ronnie V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Texas Christian University, United States. Electronic address: k.j.leising@tcu.edu.
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Leising
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning; D010856:Columbidae; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D065853:Spatial Learning; D014163:Transfer, Psychology
keywords: Conditional discrimination; Landmarks; Occasion setting; Pigeons; Spatial learning; Touchscreen