Organisms trained to respond at a high rate to one stimulus, S1, and at a low rate to another stimulus, S2, lying in the same physical dimension as S1, may, when presented successively with a number of stimuli lying in the dimension, respond at the highest rate to a stimulus away from S1 in a direction opposite S2. This "peak shift" effect has been found following training in which S1 and S2 were presented successively, but not when they were presented simultaneously. In the present study peak shift was obtained when S1 and S2 were presented simultaneously during training. In order to isolate the conditions necessary to produce peak shift after simultaneous training, different groups of pigeons were given variations in procedure, but peak shift was obtained with all groups. The variations included using stimuli from various physical dimensions, using different training procedures, and using various methods of presenting stimuli during the tests for peak shift. The results were generally more consistent with discrimination theories that postulate the interaction of generalisation gradients around S1 and S2, rather than with theories that postulate control by some relationship between S1 and S2, and in particular, they were most consistent with explanations of peak shift that propose that the responding occurring in the presence of S1 is inhibited in the presence of S2.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/247227 |
| Date | January 1973 |
| Creators | Winton, Alan Stuart William |
| Publisher | ResearchSpace@Auckland |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: The author |
Page generated in 0.0015 seconds