Backward associations: Differential learning about stimuli that follow the presence versus the absence of food in pigeons |
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| Authors: | Eliot Hearst |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Indiana University, 47405, Bloomington, IN
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| Abstract: | During training intended to establish positive and negative backward associations, pigeons received periodic 3-sec illuminations of a grain magazine, with food simultaneously available on 50% of the illuminations. For backward-positive subjects, a red keylight followed food trials only; for backward-negative subjects, it followed no-food trials only. During this training, the birds hardly ever pecked the red stimulus (no evidence of backward conditioning). However, when the red stimulus subsequently preceded and signaled grain for all birds, the backward-positive subjects pecked sooner and more often than did the backward-negative subjects, and control subjects performed at an intermediate level. Increases in the amount of original training did not significantly change the facilitatory effects of the backward-positive stimulus, but seemed to enhance the retarding effects of the backward-negative stimulus. These group differences cannot be attributed to what happened after the backward stimuli during original training. The features of the present technique that could possibly have produced strong and long-lasting positive and negative backward associations are discussed in comparison to prior research that has indicated weak or transitory evidence of true backward conditioning. |
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