Abstract
Most investigations of short-term memory in the pigeon have employed the delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) paradigm. Generally, the limits of retention in these studies have been 15-20 sec. In the present experiment, pigeons were tested with a visual short-term memory task that is based upon autoshaping. On some trials, the birds were shown a horizontal line for 5 sec, followed by a variable retention interval, a 5-sec green stimulus, and, finally, a 4-sec food presentation. On other trials, a 5-sec vertical line was followed by a variable retention interval, a 5-sec green stimulus, and no food. Response latencies and rates to the green stimulus were recorded as measures of retention. Horizontal trials generated higher rates and shorter latencies to green than did vertical trials. In contrast to DMTS performance, discrimination was maintained with no significant decrement at retention intervals up to 20 sec. Possible reasons for this discrepancy and the potential usefulness of this paradigm as a memory task are discussed.
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Portions of this article were presented at the Animal Behavior Society Northeast Regional Meeting, New York, 1976. The research was partially supported by a National Science Foundation Summer Fellowship to the second author.
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Straub, R.O., Worsham, R.W. & Terrace, H.S. Short-term memory in the pigeon using a modified autoshaping paradigm. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 21, 61–64 (1983). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329955
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329955