Abstract
A keylight (S1) always projected on one response key signaled food for hungry pigeons in a first-order classical conditioning procedure. When S1 evoked strong keypecking, it was presented without food on some of the trials that were signaled by other keylights (S2) in a second-order conditioning procedure. On half the second-order trials, the occurrence of S1 was signaled by an S2 projected on the same response key as S1; on the remaining trials, S1 was signaled by another S2 projected on a different key than S1. Acquisition of keypecking to S2 was faster when S2 and S1 occurred on the same response key than when they occurred on different keys. Asymptotic responding to the two S2s was not different, however. A control group showed that keypecking to S2 on the “different” key resulted from the pairing of S2 on that key with S1 on the other key. The enhancement of acquisition to S2 when it occurs in the same location as S1 may reflect the effects of stimulus similarity on conditioning, or, simply, a more optimal temporal relationship between S2 and S1. The fact that directed motor behavior can be established to a stimulus in one location solely through pairing of that stimulus with a well-conditioned stimulus in another location further implicates second-order conditioning as a factor in conditioned reinforcement effects in instrumental training.
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Reference Notes
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This research was supported in part by Grant BNS 77-16844 from the National Science Foundation, M. E. Rashotte, principal investigator, and National Institute of Mental Health Training Grant MH-11218. The authors wish to thank Kenneth Grosslight for assistance in collection of the data, and Jeffrey O’Connell for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
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Marshall, B.S., Gokey, D.S., Green, P.L. et al. Spatial location of first- and second-order visual conditioned stimuli in second-order conditioning of the pigeon’s keypeck. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 13, 133–136 (1979). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335036
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335036