The transitive inference (TI) problem (i.e., if A > B and B > C, then A > C) has traditionally been considered a hallmark of logical reasoning. However, considerable debate exists regarding the psychological processes involved when individuals perform TI tasks. The current thesis therefore sought to further explore this issue with adult humans as the population sample. Following a review of the literature, the first empirical chapter, Chapter 2, adopted a traditional TI task and exposed participants to training and testing with a simultaneous discrimination paradigm. In addition, the chapter sought to examine the potential facilitative effects of awareness and repeated exposure to training and test phases on the emergence of TI. Results broadly demonstrated that awareness led to more accurate responses at test, and that for a number of participants, repeated exposure to training and test phases, allowed the targeted performances to emerge over time. Chapter 3 developed and determined the utility of a novel behaviour-analytic account of TI as a form of derived comparative relational responding. For the most part, findings revealed that the model has the potential to generate arbitrarily applicable comparative responding in adults, comparable to TI. However, findings from Chapter 3 also revealed that despite the implementation of a number of interventions, response accuracy was still weak on a number of the targeted relations. Chapter 4 developed a variant of the Relational Completion Procedure (RCP) to examine derived comparative responding to 'More-than' and 'Less-than' relations, as an extension of the behavioural account of TI adopted in Chapter 3. Findings revealed that, for the most part, the protocol was effective in establishing the targeted relations, and that the linearity (e.g., A < B, B < C) of training pairs was not found to effect the emergence of this pattern of responding. Chapter 5 sought to explore the transformation of discriminative functions via a 5- member relational network of 'More-than' and 'Less-than' relations. Findings revealed that, across four experiments, approximately half of the participants displayed the predicted patterns of performance. That is, half of the participants responded 'less' to the stimuli ranked lower in the network (A and B) and 'more' to the stimuli ranked higher in the network (D and E), on the basis of training with stimulus C. The utility of the current behaviour-analytic approach to the study of TI is discussed.

Many recent discoveries in animal cognition have shown that species once thought to be relatively simple are in fact capable of complex problem-solving in accordance with their ecological needs. These findings have resulted from experiments designed with the evolutionary history of the focal species in mind. Transitive inference (TI), the abiliy to infer the ordering of non-adjacent objects within a series, is a cognitive skill once thought to be exclusive to humans. Now considered a litmus-test for logical-relational reasoning, TI is thought to have evolved in social species in order to help track dominance relationships. Although recent work has shown that animals can display TI, it has yet to be demonstrated in the natural context in which it evolved. Songbirds may use TI to gain relative dominance information about others during countersinging interactions, through their use of network communication. Here I demonstrate that black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) use TI to judge the relative rank of unknown territorial intruders during the breeding season using dominance information provided through song contests. Using a multispeaker playback, I provided focal males with the relative ranks of three simulated “males” through two countersinging interactions (A > B, B > C). I predicted that when presented with the non-adjacent pair (A and C) with no relative rank information provided, focal males would choose to defend against the intruder they perceived as the greater threat. Consistent with my predictions, the majority of focal males approached “male” A. Additionally, male responses were influenced by age, with older males (in their second or later breeding season) approaching the dominant intruder more consistently than younger males (in their first breeding season). This is the first instance of TI being demonstrated in a natural population of untrained animals, and has important implications for the understanding of songbird communication networks. Transitive inference may be used in several natural situations by chickadees throughout the breeding season and a number of possible avenues for future TI research are discussed. Additionally, methods are suggested for the examination of TI during the non-breeding season. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-24 10:45:17.316

Transitive inference refers to the ability to use knowledge of pre-existing relationships to infer relationships between entities that have not been directly compared. This form of logical inference is an important skill for many social species, and has been thought to arise in an immature form in humans between the ages of four and six years. The experimental methods used to test this ability in humans often require some verbal skill, gross or fine motor coordination, a memory capable of containing numerous relationships, and often a great deal of time and repetition in testing. These methods of testing may have been too demanding on other physical and cognitive abilities to be successfully completed by children under four years of age, regardless of their ability to make transitive inferences. The present study used methods sensitive to infant cognition to test the current theory that the ability to make transitive inferences does not develop until the age of four. Nine-month-old infants were tested in three separate experiments using a visual habituation paradigm similar to that used by Woodward (1998) and through investigation of infants’ own imitative actions. Experiment 1 verified that infants can track the goals of others in a habituation paradigm when the goal object changes position throughout habituation trials, both through looking time measures and imitative action. Experiment 2 used an extension of this paradigm to examine the ability to make transitive inferences across a three item chain, serially ordered by the actor’s object preference, and no evidence of transitive inference was observed. Experiment 3 tested infants’ ability to habituate to and recall multiple goals using context as a cue to actor choice. Infants were able to consistently track only one of the pairings, suggesting that avoidance, in addition to selection, may play a role in infant performance in the visual habituation paradigm. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-14 09:10:37.385

Patients with schizophrenia show a number of cognitive deficits that may be related to abnormal hippocampal physiology and function. One such cognitive deficit is in transitive inference. Simply stated, transitive inference is the ability to infer A &gt; C after directly learning A &gt; B and B &gt; C. The hippocampus has been implicated in transitive inference as lesions of the hippocampus in C57BL/6 mice after initial training and testing impairs transitive inference. Likewise, lesions of the hippocampus in rats prior to training also impair transitive inference. However, lesions of the whole hippocampus are not able to specifically examine the role of the dorsal versus ventral hippocampus in this task. This is important because studies suggest that the dorsal and ventral poles of the hippocampus may be functionally different. The present experiment used reversible inactivation of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus to examine the role of these structures in transitive inference. Mice were trained to learn that A&gt;B, B&gt;C, C&gt;D, and D&gt;E during training phases and then were tested to show if they learned that A&gt;E (the novel control pairing) and that B&gt;D (the novel pairing which requires transitive inference) during test sessions. Following these test sessions, cannulae were inserted into the hippocampus and the mice were allowed 5 days to recover. After the recovery period, mice underwent 4 more test sessions. The GABAA agonist muscimol or saline was infused into the dorsal or ventral hippocampus thirty minutes before each test session. The mice which received muscimol infusion into the dorsal hippocampus performed similarly to controls on the novel control pairing (A&gt;E) but were significantly impaired on the novel pairing (B&gt;D) which required transitive inference. The DBA/2 strain of mice have altered hippocampal function and has been used to model schizophrenia. The study also compared performance of DBA/2J and C57BL/6J inbred mice in TI, and foreground and background fear conditioning, which both involve the hippocampus. Separate mice were then trained with two different fear conditioning paradigms. For background fear conditioning, mice are trained with two paired presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS, 30 second, 85 dB white noise) and an unconditioned stimulus (US, 2 second, 0.57 mA foot shock). Mice are then tested the next day for both freezing to the training context. Foreground fear conditioning differed in that the mice were presented with only the shocks during training. DBA/2J mice performed significantly worse than the C57BL/6J in both foreground and background fear conditioning and transitive inference. These results provide further support for the role of the dorsal hippocampus in transitive inference. Moreover, these results may help provide a better understanding of the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. / Psychology

This thesis presents a series of experiments where endorsement rates, latencies and measures of cognitive ability were collected, to investigate the extent to which people search for counterexamples under necessity instructions, and alternative models under possibility instructions. The research was motivated by a syllogistic reasoning study carried out by Evans, Handley, Harper, and Johnson-Laird (1999), and predictions were derived from mental model theory (Johnson-Laird, 1983; Johnson-Laird &amp; Byrne, 1991). With regard to the endorsement rate data: Experiment 1 failed to find evidence that a search for counterexamples or alternative models took place. In contrast experiment 2 (transitive inference) found some evidence to support the search for alternative models under possibility instructions, and following an improved training session, experiment 3 produced strong evidence to suggest that people searched for other models; which was mediated by cognitive ability. There was also strong evidence from experiments 4, 5 and 6 (abstract and everyday conditionals) to support the search for counterexamples and alternative models. Furthermore it was also found that people were more likely to find alternative causes when there were many that could be retrieved from their everyday knowledge, and that people carried out a search for counterexamples with many alternative causes under necessity instructions, and across few and many causal groups under possibility instructions. .The evidence from the latency data was limited and inconsistent, although people with higher cognitive ability were generally quicker in completing the tasks.

The evolutionary forces that led to the unprecedented expansion of the human brain and the extreme cognitive prowess possessed by humans have always attracted a great deal of attention from the scientific community. Presented here is a novel theoretical perspective, where the driving force on human brain evolution was the need for enhanced ability to infer social values of conspecifics in the face of degradation and loss of chemosensory signalling mechanisms necessary for social communication present in most mammals. The lack of chemosensory communication of biologically relevant information between humans in the face of the need to make adaptive and accurate social evaluations, led to an exaption of mammalian chemosensory brain regions for the more complex task of inferring social values from behavioural cues that are variable, ambiguous, or otherwise difficult to detect and interpret. This change in social processing from perceptual evaluation to inferential computation placed a premium on cognitive capacity, thus selecting for larger more powerful brains. These selective processes would have left an indelible mark on the human brain, where the human homologues of regions involved in mammalian conspecific chemical communication, in particular the target regions of this study the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), should be involved in the processing of biologically relevant information and social inference. Several experiments were conducted to examine the role of these brain regions in social inferential processing using the lesion deficit method. First, given that conspecific chemical communication is particularly relevant for biologically imperative evaluation for the purposes of reproduction, VMPC and amygdala damage may result in abnormal mate-related decisions. Second, normal social attributions exhibit the correspondence bias, however damage to the target regions may result in an abnormal lack correspondence bias. Third, the current hypothesis is contrasted with another leading hypothesis, the Social Brain Hypothesis whose proponents predict a relationship between group-size and social cognition. Finally, if the target brain regions are truly integral in inferring social information, then damage to these regions will interfere with the ability to utilize transitive inference in social situations, and potentially in using transitive inference in general. Damage to the target areas produces limited effects on mate-related decisions and preferences. However, the current hypothesis may suggest that the target brain regions are only involved when the problem is inferential in nature rather than simpler perception of social information. In support of this notion, damage to the target regions results in a lack of the correspondence bias when making economic decisions. This alteration in social attributions actually leads to more `rational' decision-making in this context. In contrast to the predictions of the Social Brain Hypothesis, damage to the target regions produces no observed reduction in social group size, nor is there any observed relationship between perspective-taking ability and group size. Finally, damage to the VMPC produces deficits in using transitive inference in a non-social context perhaps hinting at the underlying computations of this region in inferring social information. In conclusion, it appears that the notion that the human brain regions that have been exapted from their duties in chemosensation and communication in mammalian brains has at least some validity. Moreover, these brain regions have been shifted by evolution to a more computationally complex process of social inference possibly providing the push toward larger and more powerful human brains.

O estudo do responder controlado por relações de seleção ou rejeição insere-se no âmbito de investigações sobre as condições necessárias e suficientes para a formação de classes de estímulos equivalentes. O presente projeto pretendeu investigar aspectos relacionados ao tema em experimentos conduzidos com humanos e pombos. O primeiro experimento teve por objetivo avaliar se o registro do comportamento de olhar, em termos do tempo de observação dos estímulos e padrões de rastreamento exibidos ao longo do treino de discriminações condicionais, poderia fornecer medidas auxiliares sobre o processo de aquisição dos controles por seleção e rejeição durante o treino de discriminações condicionais em participantes humanos. Para esta finalidade era importante preparar uma situação experimental que, previsivelmente, gerasse diferenças nos resultados da aprendizagem discriminativa. Desse modo, seria possível verificar se o olhar poderia fornecer dicas adicionais sobre o estabelecimento do responder controlado por relações de seleção ou rejeição. Estudos anteriores mostraram que, em procedimentos de MTS, utilizar o teclado ou o mouse produz diferentes resultados nos testes de formação de classes. Objetivou-se assim verificar se diferentes topografias de resposta gerariam resultados diferentes na aquisição das discriminações condicionais e nos testes de formação de classes e, adicionalmente, se gerariam padrões de rastreamento diferentes em termos do tempo de observação dos estímulos. Estudantes universitários foram submetidos aos treinos de discriminações condicionais envolvendo seis conjuntos de estímulos (treinos EF, DE, CD, BC e AB) enquanto utilizam um equipamento que registrava o comportamento de olhar. Os resultados sugerem que diferentes topografias de respostas dão origem a diferentes padrões de rastreamento dos estímulos, entretanto não foram encontradas evidências de que tais padrões estariam relacionados ao estabelecimento de relações controladas por seleção ou rejeição. O segundo experimento teve por objetivo verificar a existência de relações de transitividade a partir de um treino condicional envolvendo estímulos temporais. Foram utilizados 12 pombos (Columba lívia) experimentalmente ingênuos e mantidos a 80% do seu peso ad lib. O equipamento utilizado consistia em uma caixa experimental padrão contendo três discos de respostas dispostos horizontalmente. Uma tentativa de treino ocorria da seguinte forma: a luz ambiente e o disco central de respostas eram acesos ao mesmo tempo. Se, por exemplo, o estímulo temporal programado fosse de 4 s, uma luz branca no disco central permanecia ligada por esse período. Após 4 s, a luz do disco central era apagada e cores eram apresentadas nos discos laterais. Uma bicada em qualquer um dos discos laterais encerrava a tentativa. Respostas corretas eram seguidas por um curto período de acesso ao comedouro e um IET de 20 s. Respostas incorretas eram seguidas pelo IET e pela reapresentação da mesma tentativa (procedimento de correção). O procedimento era composto por três fases de treino: nas tentativas do Treino A, os sujeitos aprenderam a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor vermelha diante do modelo 1 s e a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor verde diante de 4 s. Nas tentativas do Treino B, eles aprenderam a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor azul diante de 4 s e a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor amarela diante de 16 s. Durante o Treino C, os sujeitos aprenderam a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor azul diante do modelo verde e a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor amarela diante do modelo vermelho. Considerando os treinos A e B, as cores azul e verde foram relacionadas ao mesmo estímulo temporal 4 s, enquanto que as cores vermelho e amarelo não partilharam qualquer estímulo comum durante o treino anterior. Os resultados sugerem que as relações entre azul e verde foram adquiridas mais rapidamente, fato de parece comprovar a formação de relações de transitividade em fases ix anteriores do treino / The study of responding controlled by selection or rejection relations is within the scope of research on the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of equivalent stimuli classes. This project sought to investigate aspects related to this subject by performing experiments with humans and pigeons. The first experiment evaluated whether the record of eye movement - in terms of stimuli observation time and tracking patterns exhibited throughout conditional discrimination training - could provide ancillary measures on the acquisition process of control by selection rejection during the conditional discrimination training on human participants. For this purpose it was important to prepare an experimental situation that predictably generate differences in the discriminative learning outcomes. Thus, it would be possible to verify if the eye movement could provide additional clues about the establishment of responding controlled by relations of selection or rejection. Previous studies have shown that using the keyboard or mouse, in MTS tasks, produces different results in class formation testing. The objective was, therefore, to check if different response topographies would generate different results in conditional discrimination acquisition and class formation tests and, furthermore, if it would generate different tracking patterns, in terms of stimuli observation time. College students were subjected to conditional discriminations training involving six sets of stimuli (training EF, DE, CD, BC and AB) while using a device that recorded eye movement. Results suggest that different response topographies originate different patterns of stimulus tracking, however there was no evidence that such patterns referred to the establishment of relations controlled by selection or rejection. The second experiment sought verifying the existence of transitivity relations from conditional training involving temporal stimuli. Subjects were 12 pigeons (Columba livia) experimentally naive and kept at 80% of their ad lib weight. The equipment used consisted of a box containing three standard experimental response keys horizontally arranged. A training attempt occurred as follows: house light and the central key were lit at the same time. If, for example, the programmed interval was 4 s, a white light in the central key remained on for that period. After 4 s, the light from the central key was turned off and colors were presented on the side keys. A peck on either of the side keys ended the attempt. Correct answers were followed by a short period of access to the feeder and an ITI of 20 s. Incorrect answers were followed by the ITI and the repetition of the same trial (correction procedure). The procedure consisted of three phases of training: in Training A attempts, the subjects learned to choose the red colored key when the 1 s model was presented, and to choose the green colored key when the 4 s model was presented. In Training B attempts, they learned to choose the blue colored key when the 4 s model was presented and to choose the yellow colored key when the 16 s model was presented. During Training C, subjects learned to choose the blue colored key when green color was presented and to choose yellow colored key when red color model was presented. Regarding A and B trainings, blue and green stimuli were related to the same temporal stimulus 4 s, while red and yellow ones did not share any common temporal stimulus during earlier training. Results suggest that relations between blue and green were acquired more quickly, a fact that seems to demonstrate formation of transitivity relations in earlier stages of training

O estudo do responder controlado por relações de seleção ou rejeição insere-se no âmbito de investigações sobre as condições necessárias e suficientes para a formação de classes de estímulos equivalentes. O presente projeto pretendeu investigar aspectos relacionados ao tema em experimentos conduzidos com humanos e pombos. O primeiro experimento teve por objetivo avaliar se o registro do comportamento de olhar, em termos do tempo de observação dos estímulos e padrões de rastreamento exibidos ao longo do treino de discriminações condicionais, poderia fornecer medidas auxiliares sobre o processo de aquisição dos controles por seleção e rejeição durante o treino de discriminações condicionais em participantes humanos. Para esta finalidade era importante preparar uma situação experimental que, previsivelmente, gerasse diferenças nos resultados da aprendizagem discriminativa. Desse modo, seria possível verificar se o olhar poderia fornecer dicas adicionais sobre o estabelecimento do responder controlado por relações de seleção ou rejeição. Estudos anteriores mostraram que, em procedimentos de MTS, utilizar o teclado ou o mouse produz diferentes resultados nos testes de formação de classes. Objetivou-se assim verificar se diferentes topografias de resposta gerariam resultados diferentes na aquisição das discriminações condicionais e nos testes de formação de classes e, adicionalmente, se gerariam padrões de rastreamento diferentes em termos do tempo de observação dos estímulos. Estudantes universitários foram submetidos aos treinos de discriminações condicionais envolvendo seis conjuntos de estímulos (treinos EF, DE, CD, BC e AB) enquanto utilizam um equipamento que registrava o comportamento de olhar. Os resultados sugerem que diferentes topografias de respostas dão origem a diferentes padrões de rastreamento dos estímulos, entretanto não foram encontradas evidências de que tais padrões estariam relacionados ao estabelecimento de relações controladas por seleção ou rejeição. O segundo experimento teve por objetivo verificar a existência de relações de transitividade a partir de um treino condicional envolvendo estímulos temporais. Foram utilizados 12 pombos (Columba lívia) experimentalmente ingênuos e mantidos a 80% do seu peso ad lib. O equipamento utilizado consistia em uma caixa experimental padrão contendo três discos de respostas dispostos horizontalmente. Uma tentativa de treino ocorria da seguinte forma: a luz ambiente e o disco central de respostas eram acesos ao mesmo tempo. Se, por exemplo, o estímulo temporal programado fosse de 4 s, uma luz branca no disco central permanecia ligada por esse período. Após 4 s, a luz do disco central era apagada e cores eram apresentadas nos discos laterais. Uma bicada em qualquer um dos discos laterais encerrava a tentativa. Respostas corretas eram seguidas por um curto período de acesso ao comedouro e um IET de 20 s. Respostas incorretas eram seguidas pelo IET e pela reapresentação da mesma tentativa (procedimento de correção). O procedimento era composto por três fases de treino: nas tentativas do Treino A, os sujeitos aprenderam a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor vermelha diante do modelo 1 s e a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor verde diante de 4 s. Nas tentativas do Treino B, eles aprenderam a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor azul diante de 4 s e a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor amarela diante de 16 s. Durante o Treino C, os sujeitos aprenderam a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor azul diante do modelo verde e a bicar o disco iluminado pela cor amarela diante do modelo vermelho. Considerando os treinos A e B, as cores azul e verde foram relacionadas ao mesmo estímulo temporal 4 s, enquanto que as cores vermelho e amarelo não partilharam qualquer estímulo comum durante o treino anterior. Os resultados sugerem que as relações entre azul e verde foram adquiridas mais rapidamente, fato de parece comprovar a formação de relações de transitividade em fases ix anteriores do treino / The study of responding controlled by selection or rejection relations is within the scope of research on the necessary and sufficient conditions for the formation of equivalent stimuli classes. This project sought to investigate aspects related to this subject by performing experiments with humans and pigeons. The first experiment evaluated whether the record of eye movement - in terms of stimuli observation time and tracking patterns exhibited throughout conditional discrimination training - could provide ancillary measures on the acquisition process of control by selection rejection during the conditional discrimination training on human participants. For this purpose it was important to prepare an experimental situation that predictably generate differences in the discriminative learning outcomes. Thus, it would be possible to verify if the eye movement could provide additional clues about the establishment of responding controlled by relations of selection or rejection. Previous studies have shown that using the keyboard or mouse, in MTS tasks, produces different results in class formation testing. The objective was, therefore, to check if different response topographies would generate different results in conditional discrimination acquisition and class formation tests and, furthermore, if it would generate different tracking patterns, in terms of stimuli observation time. College students were subjected to conditional discriminations training involving six sets of stimuli (training EF, DE, CD, BC and AB) while using a device that recorded eye movement. Results suggest that different response topographies originate different patterns of stimulus tracking, however there was no evidence that such patterns referred to the establishment of relations controlled by selection or rejection. The second experiment sought verifying the existence of transitivity relations from conditional training involving temporal stimuli. Subjects were 12 pigeons (Columba livia) experimentally naive and kept at 80% of their ad lib weight. The equipment used consisted of a box containing three standard experimental response keys horizontally arranged. A training attempt occurred as follows: house light and the central key were lit at the same time. If, for example, the programmed interval was 4 s, a white light in the central key remained on for that period. After 4 s, the light from the central key was turned off and colors were presented on the side keys. A peck on either of the side keys ended the attempt. Correct answers were followed by a short period of access to the feeder and an ITI of 20 s. Incorrect answers were followed by the ITI and the repetition of the same trial (correction procedure). The procedure consisted of three phases of training: in Training A attempts, the subjects learned to choose the red colored key when the 1 s model was presented, and to choose the green colored key when the 4 s model was presented. In Training B attempts, they learned to choose the blue colored key when the 4 s model was presented and to choose the yellow colored key when the 16 s model was presented. During Training C, subjects learned to choose the blue colored key when green color was presented and to choose yellow colored key when red color model was presented. Regarding A and B trainings, blue and green stimuli were related to the same temporal stimulus 4 s, while red and yellow ones did not share any common temporal stimulus during earlier training. Results suggest that relations between blue and green were acquired more quickly, a fact that seems to demonstrate formation of transitivity relations in earlier stages of training