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Magazine Training Trials And Context Effects On Autoshaping, Fernando G. Oberdieck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the autoshaping preparation subjects are exposed to magazine training (US-only trials) prior to the conditioning phase in which a stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) predicts the delivery of a response independent reinforcer (unconditioned stimulus, US). Two experiments examined the hypothesis that irrespective of the number of US-only trials administered the magazine training and autoshaping contexts interact to determine conditioning, as measured by contact responses to the CS. The contexts employed were houselight on (light, L) and houselight off (dark, D).

In Experiment I pigeons were exposed to 1, 20, 100, or 900 US-only trials in a D, or L, context …

Inter- And Intra-Sensory Modality Stimulus Scaling: A Method For The Determination Of The Relative Salience Of Stimuli In Poison-Based Aversion Learning By Pigeons, David L. Pounds

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One of the most rapidly expanding areas of research in psychology has been poison-based aversion learning (PBAL). The PBAL paradigm typically involves: exposing an animal to a novel substance; inducing illness following ingestion of that substance; and then providing access to the substance at a later time. The initial reaction to the novel substance is generally to reduce consumption, a finding labeled neophobia. The reduction of substance intake on test day is called learned aversion.

Following demonstrations of cue-to-consequence specificity (i.e., the differential associability of some stimuli with certain consequences) in PBAL research with rats, recent research has focused on …

Factors Affecting The Conditioned Reinforcing Strength Of Stimuli In Differential Reinforcement Of Other Behavior And Fixed-Time Schedules, Alexander M. Myers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Two experiments were conducted in an attempt to provide a direct, response-independent test of the delay-reduction hypothesis of conditioned reinforcement. In both experiments, pigeons made observing responses, by pressing a treadle, for stimuli associated with the schedule component in effect. The consequences of an observing response were varied; an observing response produced: a) either the stimulus associated with the shorter component or the stimulus associated with the longer component depending on the schedule component in effect; b) the stimulus associated with the short component only; c) the stimulus associated with the long component only; or, d) neigher stimulus (no consequence). …

Priming And The Post-Prime Pause In Mixed Fixed-Ratio Schedules, Larry Allen Alferink

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of a stimulus change inserted in the large component of a mixed fixed-ratio 10 fixed-ratio 100 schedule. In mixed fixed-ratio schedules, a run of responses which approximates the response requirement of the smaller fixed ratio occurs at the beginning of the larger fixed ratio. This run of responses and the pause it precedes is called a prime. In Experiment I, priming acquisition was compared in a mixed schedule in which a change in key-color followed completion of the first 10 responses of the fixed-ratio 100 component and a mixed schedule with …