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Stimulus generalization of excitation and inhibition.

Five sign-tracking experiments with pigeons investigated the breadth of stimulus generalization of excitatory and inhibitory conditioning. Using a compound stimulus test procedure, these experiments found evidence for a narrower generalization of associative strength in excitation than in inhibition. They also found a narrower associative gradient with a more strongly conditioned excitatory stimulus, although this did not seem to account for the difference between exciters and inhibitors. These results confirm earlier findings comparing generalization after acquisition and extinction and raise various theoretical issues about generalization.

Affect↗

Interhemispheric transfer of lever pressing as stimulus generalization of the effects of spreading depression.

Rats trained to lever-press with spreading depression in one cerebral hemisphere showed weak responding when tested with depression shifted to the trained hemisphere. The rats were then divided into two groups: one group (normal) was permitted a single reinforced response with neither hemisphere depressed, the other group (depressed) was permitted a single reinforced response with the trained hemisphere depressed; both groups were then tested with the trained hemisphere depressed. Responding during this second test increased for both groups, but the magnitude of the increase tended to be greater for the depressed than for the normal group. Since memory transfer could not have occurred with the trained hemisphere depressed, the results were taken to indicate that the single reinforced response strengthened stimulus generalization between train-test conditions.

Animals↗

Failure to find evidence of stimulus generalization within pictorial categories in pigeons.

Pigeons' key pecks were reinforced in the presence of pictures from one of two categories, cats or cars. A single picture associated with reinforcement was used in Experiment 1, and 20 pictures from the same category were associated with reinforcement in Experiment 2. Pigeons then were presented with novel test pictures from the training category and from the other, previously unseen, category. During Session 1 of testing, pigeons pecked no more often at pictures from the reinforced category than at pictures from the previously unseen category. When pigeons were trained with pictures associated with reinforcement or its absence from different categories in Experiment 3, differential responding to novel pictures from different categories appeared during Session 1. These findings argue against a process of automatic stimulus generalization within natural categories and in favor of the position that category distinctions are not made until members of at least two categories are compared with one another.

Animals↗

STIMULUS ASPECTS OF AVERSIVE CONTROLS: STIMULUS GENERALIZATION OF CONDITIONED SUPPRESSION FOLLOWING DISCRIMINATION TRAINING.

A tone ending with unavoidable electrical shock was periodically presented to pigeons while they pecked a key for food. A second group of birds was exposed to these tone-shock contingencies and also to a second tone which never ended with shock. The gradient of stimulus generalization following training to a single stimulus was symmetrical, whereas the gradient following discrimination training was asymmetrical, but there was no evidence of peak shift. During testing, suppression to all tones gradually extinguished and in both groups the slope of the gradient increased markedly. A second experiment with the discrimination birds revealed that free shock caused a recovery of the gradient, but the asymmetry persisted.

Animals↗

Contrast and stimulus generalization following prolonged discrimination training.

Different groups of pigeons received discrimination training in which the reinforcement-associated and extinction-associated stimuli were respectively either (a) a line tilt vs a blank key, (b) a blank key vs a line tilt, or (c) two different line tilts. The high response rates that developed to the positive stimulus in all groups during discrimination learning were maintained over 64 sessions of training. After these sessions, all subjects were tested for stimulus generalization along the line-tilt dimension. Gradients of relative (per cent) generalization around the stimulus associated with reinforcement (so-called excitatory gradients) and around the stimulus associated with extinction (so-called inhibitory gradients) were as steep as they typically are after much briefer training periods. These results do not support several of Terrace's predictions on the basis of the hypothesis that emotional responses develop to the stimulus associated with extinction during discrimination learning with errors, but eventually dissipate after extended training.

Journal Article↗

Stimulus duration as a measure of stimulus generalization.

Four pigeons in the line-positive group were trained with a vertical line on a green background that signalled intermittent reinforcement while a plain green field signalled extinction. Four pigeons in the line-negative group were trained with the opposite discrimination. Response to a control key terminated any trial and initiated the next trial. The birds also used the control key during generalization tests to control the durations of trials in which various line orientations were presented. These durations were summed to provide generalization gradients of stimulus duration that were positive or negative in accordance with the trained discriminations. In Experiment 2, birds from the line-positive group were tested with a procedure in which the control key was not available on some trials. This provided an independent assessment of response rates to the test stimuli. These rates were used to predict the stimulus durations obtained when the control key was available. The findings supported a general model for the prediction of response distributions among concurrent stimuli from rates observed with single stimuli.

Journal Article↗

Stimulus generalization of conditioned eyelid responses produced without cerebellar cortex: implications for plasticity in the cerebellar nuclei.

In Pavlovian eyelid conditioning and adaptation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex, cerebellar cortex lesions fail to completely abolish previously acquired learning, indicating an additional site of plasticity in the deep cerebellar or vestibular nucleus. Three forms of plasticity are known to occur in the deep cerebellar nuclei: formation of new synapses, plasticity at existing synapses, and changes in intrinsic excitability. Only a cell-wide increase in excitability predicts that learning should generalize broadly from a training stimulus to other stimuli capable of supporting learning, whereas the alternatives predict that learning should be relatively specific to the training stimulus. Here we show that deep nucleus plasticity, as assessed by conditioned eyelid responses produced without input from the cerebellar cortex, is relatively specific to the training conditioned stimulus (CS). We trained rabbits to a tone or light CS with periorbital stimulation as the unconditioned stimulus (US), and pharmacologically disconnected the cerebellar cortex during a posttraining generalization test. The short-latency conditioned responses unmasked by this treatment showed strong decrement along the dimension of auditory frequency and did not generalize across stimulus modalities. These results cannot be explained solely by a cell-wide increase in the excitability of deep nucleus neurons, and imply that an input-specific mechanism in the deep cerebellar nucleus operates as well.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Promoting response variability and stimulus generalization in martial arts training.

The effects of reinforcement and extinction on response variability and stimulus generalization in the punching and kicking techniques of 2 martial arts students were evaluated across drill and sparring conditions. During both conditions, the students were asked to demonstrate different techniques in response to an instructor's punching attack. During baseline, the students received no feedback on their responses in either condition. During the intervention phase, the students received differential reinforcement in the form of instructor feedback for each different punching or kicking technique they performed during a session of the drill condition, but no reinforcement was provided for techniques in the sparring condition. Results showed that both students increased the number of different techniques they performed when reinforcement and extinction procedures were conducted during the drill condition, and that this increase in response variability generalized to the sparring condition.

Adult↗

Stimulus generalization as a function of discrimination learning with and without errors.

After discrimination learning with and without errors, three groups of pigeons were tested for generalization to the angularity (negative stimulus) dimension. For half the subjects from each group, each angle was superimposed on a light of 555-nanometer wavelength, the positive stimulus during training; for the other half, the angles were on a black background. When tested to the angularity alone, the group which had made errors (pecked at the negative stimulus) during discrimination training showed a typical incremental (inverted) gradient of responding to the negative stimulus dimension. The control group and the one learning the discrimination without errors showed no differential control by the negative stimulus dimension. When each angle was superimposed on the positive stimulus during testing, a decremental gradient with maximum response strength to the negative stimulus was evidenced by the group learning with and the one group learning without errors.

Animals↗

Analysis of response rates during stimulus generalization.

In the presence of one click frequency, the presses of two hungry rats on one of two levers were reinforced with food on variable-interval schedules; in the presence of a different click frequency, presses on the other lever were reinforced. In stimulus generalization tests, a variety of click frequencies were presented and reinforcement withheld. The test stimuli were found to exert control over which of the two levers the rats pressed, but not over the rate of pressing the selected lever. The results were interpreted as further evidence that intermediate rates in generalization gradients may be the result of the alternation of several distinct behavior patterns.

Journal Article↗

Assessment of stimulus generalization gradients in the treatment of self-injurious behavior.

Descriptive and experimental analyses suggested that the self-injurious behavior (SIB) of a 10-year-old girl with severe mental retardation was maintained by attention. Additional analyses identified physical contact as the type of attention maintaining SIB; therefore, we hypothesized that physical proximity of an adult was a discriminative stimulus for SIB. Based on these findings, we systematically varied the distance between the participant and a therapist to assess stimulus generalization. Results showed that rates of SIB varied relative to the distance between the participant and therapist; the highest percentage of SIB occurred with the therapist positioned less than 0.5 m from the participant. Treatment consisted of placing the therapist at a specified distance (9.0 m) from the participant (during low-attention situations), noncontingent reinforcement, and extinction.

Behavior Therapy↗

Stimulus generalization of schedule-induced polydipsia.

Five rats were exposed to an intradimensional discrimination by associating two tones of different frequency with the components of a multiple random-time 30-sec, extinction schedule of food presentation. After schedule-induced polydipsia developed and the intermittent schedule of food presentation established stable differential licking rates during the stimuli associated with the multiple schedule, a stimulus generalization test was conducted. When generalization testing was conducted by presenting stimuli that varied on the frequency dimension during the random-time 30-sec component of the multiple schedule, all five rats demonstrated moderately sloping symmetrical gradients. Thus, schedule-induced polydipsia can be brought under the control of stimuli other than the food pellet.

Journal Article↗

The effects of "do", "don't" and "wait" requests training on compliance behavior and stimulus generalization.

Previous implementation of compliance training has involved the use of aversive behaviors, as consequents, which bear neither a topographical nor a functional relationship to the behaviors under training. The present study explores compliance training in which training behaviors, used as consequents, are both topographically and functionally identical to the target behaviors. This study extends the compliance literature through: (1) an analysis of the effects of compliance training in long-term institutionalized mentally retarded adults, (2) the investigation of a third response class "Wait" requests, and (3) an assessment of stimulus generalization. Findings discussed include (a) the treatment effects of compliance training, across response classes, within treatment sessions; (b) the spontaneous generalization of treatment effects outside the treatment conditions; (c) the collateral effects of training upon aggressive outbursts; (d) the heightened potential for the utilization of these techniques in long-term care institutions.

Adult↗

EFFECTS OF AVERAGING DATA DURING STIMULUS GENERALIZATION.

Rats were trained to press two keys consecutively for reinforcement. During stimulus one (slow clicker) a 6-sec time delay was required between the two responses. During stimulus eight (fast clicker) no time delay was required between the two responses. When tested with intermediate stimuli (intermediate click rates) the median time delays emitted by the animals were intermediate between their performances on the original training stimuli, resulting in typical generalization gradients. Closer examination of the data revealed that the median values were not representative of the behavior of the animals.

Animals↗

Effects of variable-interval value and amount of training on stimulus generalization.

In Experiment 1 pigeons pecked a key that was illuminated with a 501-nm light and obtained food by doing so according to a variable-interval (VI) schedule of reinforcement, the mean value of which differed across groups: either 30 s, 120 s, or 240 s. The pigeons in all three groups were trained for 10 50-min sessions. Generalization testing was conducted in extinction with different wavelengths of light. Absolute and relative generalization gradients were similar in shape for the three groups. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1 using line orientation as the stimulus dimension and a mean VI value of either 30 s or 240 s. Again, gradients of generalization were similar for the two groups. In Experiment 3 pigeons pecked a key that was illuminated with a 501-nm light and obtained food reinforcers according to either a VI 30-s or a 240-s schedule. Training continued until response rates stabilized (> 30 sessions). For subjects trained with the 30-s schedule, generalization gradients were virtually identical regardless of whether training was for 10 sessions (Experiment 1) or until response rates stabilized. For subjects trained with the VI 240-s schedule, absolute generalization gradients for subjects trained to stability were displaced upward relative to gradients for subjects trained for only 10 sessions (Experiment 1), and relative generalization gradients were slightly flatter. These results indicate that the shape of a generalization gradient does not necessarily depend on the rate of reinforcement during 10-session single-stimulus training but that the effects of prolonged training on stimulus generalization may be schedule dependent.

Analysis of Variance↗

Visual discrimination learning in mentally handicapped adults: comparative effects of two-choice and multiple-choice training methods on stimulus generalization performance.

The hypothesis that in mentally handicapped subjects a multi-choice discrimination learning method would result in superior generalization performance to the traditional two-choice method was investigated experimentally. Twenty-four mentally handicapped adults matched for age, intelligence and duration of institutionalization were divided into two equal groups and given visual discrimination training using a differential reinforcement, prompt-fading procedure. The groups were allocated separately to a two-choice and four-choice training condition in which the discriminative stimulus was associated with one and three non-discriminative stimuli respectively. Following training, stimulus discrimination performance was compared on a generalization test comprising increasing levels of distraction. The results showed a clear advantage for multi-choice training over two-choice. However, it was found that during generalization testing discriminative performance deteriorated as a function of increasing distraction in both groups, suggesting an underlying selective attention defect. Such a defect may be characteristic of stimulus generalization performance in the mentally retarded. Multi-choice discrimination learning appeared partly to counteract major generalization failure when the ratio of non-discriminative to discriminative stimuli was high.

Adult↗

Stimulus generalization of imprinting.

Chicks were imprinted with a bluish object, then tested with different spectral values ranging to yellow-green. A systematic decrement in following was related to the stimulus series, although there was considerable generalization to all test values, which increased during testing. These data lead us to question the "irreversibility" of imprinting.

Animals↗