Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Generalization, Stimulus”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,549 records · Page 86Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Hemispheric local/global processing revisited.

Hemispheric differences for local and global processing were assessed with square and rectangular stimulus shapes which contained either squares or rectangles within them. Experiment 1 manipulated the overall size and area of the stimulus items, while experiment 2 kept stimulus area constant and manipulated the number of shapes inside the stimulus. In different conditions subjects judged whether the inside shapes (local processing) or whether the outside shapes (global processing) were squares or rectangles. Reaction time measures revealed that hemispheric differences were unrelated to the local or global processing requirements as well as the spatial frequency of the stimulus texture. A left hemisphere advantage generally was obtained across stimulus and processing conditions, with the pattern of task effects dependent on the specific stimuli employed. The results suggest that the overall stimulus shape rather than processing mode or specific spatial frequency is a primary determinant of hemispheric differences for visual information.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

[Facilitatory effect of calcium hopantenate on amygdaloid kindling in rats].

Calcium hopantenate (HOPA-Ca), which is obtained by substituting the beta-alanine of pantothenic acid for gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), is a therapeutic drug for mental retardation and cerebrovascular dementia. HOPA-Ca is known to produce convulsive seizures in some patients although it is also true that this improves EEG abnormalities and suppresses epileptic seizures. Thus, clinical observations suggest that HOPA-Ca exerts a paradoxical influence on epilepsy. In order to gain further insight into the influence of HOPA-Ca on epilepsy, we examined its effects on the generalized seizure-triggering threshold (GST) of kindled amygdaloid (AM) seizure and on the rate of AM kindling in rats. Male Wistar rats weighing 200-250 g were used. Under pentobarbital anesthesia, a bipolar electrode, made of twisted stainless steel wire 0.2 mm in diameter, was stereotaxically implanted into the left AM. Daily electrical stimulation was given at the intensity of afterdischarge threshold (ADT). Electrical stimulation was continued until at least five consecutive generalized convulsions were evoked. Subsequently, the stimulus intensity was daily lowered by 20-microA steps and the last stimulus intensity for evoking generalized convulsion was designated as the GST. Experiment 1. Influence of HOPA-Ca on the GST; HOPA-Ca was dissolved in saline as a vehicle. Injections of 50, 100, 250, 500 mg/kg HOPA-Ca were given intraperitoneally 60 min before the stimulation at the GST. The GST never changed with vehicle injection. The GST increase was never observed with any amount of HOPA-Ca. However, the GST dropped flowing HOPA-Ca infection independent of its amount. The GST reduction was always 20-microA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Amygdala↗
PubMed1993

The role of stimulus familiarity in context-dependent recognition.

Investigations of context-dependent recognition, a phenomenon in which recognition is better for items studied and tested with the same rather than different context, have shown serious inconsistencies. A simple organization of (1) contextual cues, distinguishing between local context (specific cues) and global context (general cues), and (2) stimulus familiarity, distinguishing between novel and familiar stimuli, reduces much of this variability. In two experiments, changes in both local context (descriptive label) and global context (environment) were manipulated in order to examine their effects on recognition memory for faces that differed in familiarity. Changes in local context impaired recognition of both unfamiliar and familiar faces; changes in environmental context impaired recognition only of unfamiliar faces. These results are consistent with the many failures to find impaired recognition of verbal stimuli under changed environmental contexts, and they suggest that stimulus familiarity is a critical parameter modulating environmental context effects.

Association Learning↗
PubMed1988

Discriminative properties of phencyclidine in mice: generalization to ketamine and monohydroxy metabolites.

The discriminative properties of phencyclidine (PCP) and their generalization to the effects of ketamine and monohydroxylated PCP metabolites were examined in C57BL/6cr mice utilizing two-lever operant procedures. As previously reported for pigeons and rats, PCP was discriminable in this species at a training dose of 3.0 mg/kg. PCP discriminability generalized to test doses of the drug that did not influence response rates (as low as 1.75 mg/kg) and also to ketamine (10 mg/kg). Both PCP monohydroxylated metabolites were active in mice. PCP partially generalized to the monohydroxylated metabolite, 1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)4-hydroxy piperidine (PCHP) but not to 1-(1-phenyl-4-hydroxycyclohexyl) piperidine (PPC), which is consistent with previous reports on rats. The generalization of the PCP stimulus to PCHP was not as extensive in mice as previously reported for rats, suggesting that it may be less potent in this species. Although PCP discriminability generalized to PCHP, this generalization required PCHP doses that would produce tissue concentrations much higher than could result from discriminable doses of PCP. Therefore, the PCHP metabolite does not appear to mediate PCP discriminability in C57BL/6cr mice.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Discriminative stimulus effects of amphetamine and pentobarbitone separately and as mixtures in rats.

The discriminative effect of a mixture of (+)-amphetamine plus pentobarbitone was investigated to characterize behavioural control by a compound interoceptive stimulus. A two-bar drug discrimination procedure with food reinforcement was used. The role of training dose was assessed by keeping the dose of (+)-amphetamine constant at 0.4mg/kg (SC) and progressively increasing that of pentobarbitone from 5mg/kg to 20mg/kg (SC). Initially stimulus control was attributable to (+)-amphetamine but as the dose of pentobarbitone was increased, stimulus control switched entirely to pentobarbitone. The reduced response to (+)-amphetamine after training in compound with the larger doses of pentobarbitone was attributed to overshadowing of a relatively weak (+)-amphetamine stimulus by a more salient pentobarbital stimulus. There was partial generalization when either component drug was given at the same dose as in the mixture, and almost complete generalization at larger doses of each component; in contrast, there was little cross-generalization between (+)-amphetamine and pentobarbitone in rats trained with either drug alone. The findings suggested that components of the compound stimulus were perceived and processed separately rather than being blended into a new and distinct stimulus. Tests for generalization to quipazine, phencyclidine or morphine suggested that the compound stimulus produced by the mixture was no less specific than the stimuli produced by each of the component drugs. Rules governing discrimination of the abused mixture of (+)-amphetamine plus pentobarbitone appeared generally similar to those found in previous studies with non-abused mixtures of nicotine and midazolam.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1983

Discriminative stimulus properties of buspirone compared to central nervous system depressants in rats.

Two groups of rats were trained to discriminate either IP buspirone from vehicle or IP oxazepam from vehicle using a two-lever FR-10 schedule of sweetened milk presentation. The discrimination in the buspirone group was difficult to establish due to potent response rate decreasing effects. Oxazepam was a very effective stimulus and the discrimination in the oxazepam group was readily established. Tests with oxazepam and pentobarbital in the buspirone group provided no evidence for generalization of the stimulus properties of buspirone to either drug. Tests with buspirone in the oxazepam group also provided no evidence of generalization to buspirone, although tests with pentobarbital indicated almost complete generalization. Finally buspirone and oxazepam were tested in a group of rats previously trained to discriminate pentobarbital from vehicle. The findings supported the data obtained in the buspirone and oxazepam groups, with no indication of generalization from pentobarbital to buspirone, but with complete generalization to oxazepam. These data suggest that buspirone does not share discriminative stimulus properties which are common to other CNS depressants.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Discriminative stimulus properties of m-chlorophenylpiperazine.

Stimulus control was established in a group of 10 rats using a dose of m-chlorophenylpiperazine (MCPP) of 0.8 mg/kg, administered IP, 15 min before training. A two-lever operant task using a fixed-ratio 10 schedule of sweetened milk reinforcement was used. Based upon a criterion for the presence of stimulus control of five consecutive sessions during which 83% or more of all responses were on the appropriate lever, a mean of 27 sessions was required to reach criterion performance. Response rates were significantly suppressed by the training dose of MCPP (14 responses/min) as compared with saline sessions (38 responses/min). Subsequent to the establishment of stimulus control, tests of generalization were conducted with m-trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP), 6-chloro-2-(1-piperazinyl)-pyrazine (MK-212), and 5-methoxy-3-(1,2,3,6-tetrahydro-4-pyridinyl)-1H-indole (RU-24969). MCPP generalized completely to MK-212 and TFMPP at doses of the latter drugs of 0.7 and 1.0 mg/kg, respectively. Maximum generalization to RU-24969 was 67% at a dose of 1.0 mg/kg but only 4 of 10 subjects completed the test session. The present results indicate that MCPP is efficacious as a discriminative stimulus. In addition, because of MCPP's relative selectivity for the 5-hydroxytryptamine c(5-HT1C) receptor subjects trained with MCPP may prove valuable in assessing the respective functional contributions of 5-HT1C sites to the actions of a variety of serotonergic agents.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Categorization of visual stimuli in the honeybee Apis mellifera.

Categorization refers to the classification of perceptual input into defined functional groups. We present and discuss evidence suggesting that stimulus categorization can also be found in an invertebrate, the honeybee Apis mellifera, thus underlining the generality across species of this cognitive process. Honeybees show positive transfer of appropriate responding from a trained to a novel set of visual stimuli. Such a transfer was demonstrated for specific isolated features such as symmetry or orientation, but also for assemblies (layouts) of features. Although transfer from training to novel stimuli can be achieved by stimulus generalization of the training stimuli, most of these transfer tests involved clearly distinguishable stimuli for which generalization would be reduced. Though in most cases specific experimental controls such as stimulus balance and discriminability are still required, it seems appropriate to characterize the performance of honeybees as reflecting categorization. Further experiments should address the issue of which categorization theory accounts better for the visual performances of honeybees.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Human adults and human infants show a "perceptual magnet effect" for the prototypes of speech categories, monkeys do not.

Many perceptual categories exhibit internal structure in which category prototypes play an important role. In the four experiments reported here, the internal structure of phonetic categories was explored in studies involving adults, infants, and monkeys. In Experiment 1, adults rated the category goodness of 64 variants of the vowel i parallel on a scale from 1 to 7. The results showed that there was a certain location in vowel space where listeners rated the i parallel vowels as best instances, or prototypes. The perceived goodness of i parallel vowels declined systematically as stimuli were further removed from the prototypic i parallel vowel. Experiment 2 went beyond this initial demonstration and examined the effect of speech prototypes on perception. Either the prototypic or a nonprototypic i parallel vowels was used as the referent stimulus and adults' generalization to other members of the category was examined. Results showed that the typicality of the speech stimulus strongly affected perception. When the prototype of the category served as the referent vowel, there was significantly greater generalization to other i parallel vowels, relative to the situation in which the nonprototype served as the referent. The notion of a perceptual magnet was introduced. The prototype of the category functioned like a perceptual magnet for other category members; it assimilated neighboring stimuli, effectively pulling them toward the prototype. In Experiment 3, the ontogenetic origins of the perceptual magnet effect were explored by testing 6-month-old infants. The results showed that infants' perception of vowels was also strongly affected by speech prototypes. Infants showed significantly greater generalization when the prototype of the vowel category served as the referent; moreover, their responses were highly correlated with those of adults. In Experiment 4, Rhesus monkeys were tested to examine whether or not the prototype's magnet effect was unique to humans. The animals did not provide any evidence of speech prototypes; they did not exhibit the magnet effect. It is suggested that the internal organization of phonetic categories around prototypic members is an ontogenetically early, species-specific, aspect of the speech code.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Comparison of the discriminative stimulus properties of clonidine and amphetamine in rats.

Rats were trained to discriminate d-amphetamine (1.0 mg/kg) or clonidine (0.06 mg/kg) from saline in a standard, two-lever procedure with food reinforcement (n = 6). The similarity between the discriminable properties of amphetamine and clonidine was both partial and asymmetrical. Cross tests with amylobarbitone and chlordiazepoxide in rats trained with clonidine suggested that a major component of the clonidine stimulus may be general sedation. Pretreatment with the alpha 2-adrenoreceptor antagonist, piperoxane partially antagonized the discriminative stimulus produced by clonidine. The alpha 1 antagonist, phenoxybenzamine failed to alter the clonidine stimulus. Although amphetamine and clonidine may share some elements in common, this may not represent a noradrenergic component in the amphetamine discriminative stimulus since noradrenergic mediation of the clonidine stimulus was not established.

Amphetamine↗
PubMed1964

ESCAPE FROM SD ASSOCIATED WITH FIXED-RATIO REINFORCEMENT.

Throughout ascending and descending fixed-ratio (FR) sequences, rats were allowed to terminate the FR stimulus control by pressing a time-out (TO) lever. To minimize chance or accidental responses on this second lever, three presses were required to produce the 30-sec S(Delta) period. As FR performance became more "strained," there was an increased predisposition to escape from the time-in stimulus complex. The generality of this finding was extended by obtaining recoverability (independent of the direction of stimulus change) of the FR-TO function in the descending series. Typically, escapes were produced only during the post-reinforcement pause; however, under a mixed FR FR schedule, their occurrence shifted to a point within the inter-reinforcement interval corresponding to the unreinforced completion of the lower ratio component. It appears that the point where the rat can discriminate the size of the ratio requirement will be the place where TOs are imposed. This inference was supported by a substantial increase in TO frequency accompanying a shift from CRF to extinction on the FR lever. Finally, the escape lever was placed on a progressively increasing FR schedule and later extinguished to demonstrate that the TO condition was in fact reinforcing.

Avoidance Learning↗
PubMed2000

An n-dimensional Weber Law and the Corresponding Fechner Law.

Weber's law of 1834, DeltaS/S=c for the just noticeable difference (jnd), can be written as S+DeltaS=kS, k=1+c. It follows that the stimulus decrement required to elicit one jnd of sensation is S-DeltaS*=k(-1)S. If generalized for two stimulus dimensions and two corresponding response dimensions, Weber's law would have to state such equations for all directions of change in the plane. A two-dimensional Weber law with exactly these properties is realized by [S(x)+DeltaS(x)(straight theta), S(y)+DeltaS(y)(straight theta)]=[k(sin(straight theta))S(x), k(cos(straight theta))S(y)] which determines the stimulus coordinates for all stimuli just noticeably different from the stimulus (S(x), S(y)) in all directions 0</=straight theta</=2pi. Fechner's problem now is understood as finding a transformation of the plane which maps the set of stimuli one jnd apart from the standard stimulus onto a unit circle around the standard stimulus' image. This transformation (R(2)(+)-->R(2)) is [x, y]mapsto[log(k)(x), log(k)(y)]. The solution is generalized to arbitrarily many dimensions by substituting the sin and cos in the generalized Weber law by the standard coordinates of a unit vector. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1982

Discriminative stimulus properties of DOM and several molecular modifications.

Rats trained to discriminate racemic 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenylisopropylamine, (+/-)-DOM (1.0 mg/kg), from saline in a two-lever drug discrimination task were challenged with the optimal isomers of DOM as well as with several related agents which represent minor molecular modifications of the DOM structure. Generalization of the (+/-)-DOM stimulus was found to occur to R(-)-DOM, S(+)-DOM, (+/-)-2,5-dimethoxyphenylisopropylamine (2,5-DMA), R(-)-2,-5-DMA, and the 2-demethyl derivative of (+/-)-DOM. The 3-methyl positional isomer of (+/-)-DOM was found to produce only 34% DOM-appropriate responding at the highest dose tested while administration of S(+)-2,5-DMA and the 5-demethyl derivative of (+/-)-DOM resulted in disruption of behavior.

DOM 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-Methylamphetamine↗
PubMed1986

Classical conditioning rapidly induces specific changes in frequency receptive fields of single neurons in secondary and ventral ectosylvian auditory cortical fields.

To determine if learning-induced changes in the response of auditory cortical neurons to a conditioned stimulus (CS) reflect general changes in cellular excitability or alterations in signal processing that are specific to that stimulus, we determined frequency receptive fields (FRFs) of single neurons in secondary and ventral ectosylvian auditory fields of the cat during classical conditioning. Associative changes in FRFs of most cells were specific to the frequency of the CS, established rapidly and reversed by extinction. Thus, learning causes specific changes in cortical processing of sounds whose significance is acquired.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Subjective appearance of ambiguous structure-from-motion can be driven by objective switches of a separate less ambiguous context.

Two ambiguous transparent structure-from-motion (SFM) stimuli often appear to co-rotate. Grossmann & Dobbins (2003) reported breakdown of such perceptual coupling when one stimulus was made unambiguous (by rendering it opaque), leading them to propose that coupling depends generally on differential stimulus ambiguity. In contrast, we demonstrate robust stimulus-driven coupling even when one SFM stimulus is relatively disambiguated, by using relative-luminance and/or binocular-disparity cues. Such context stimuli could induce stimulus-driven coupling by disambiguating the transparent stimulus, though critically only when the context was clearly non-opaque and coaxial with the ambiguous stimulus. This demonstrates long-range information-sharing between separate stimulus representations, subject to specific constraints.

Adult↗