Negative discriminative stimuli provide information about the identity of omitted response-contingent outcomes |
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| Authors: | Ruth M Colwill |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Brown University, Box 1853, 02912, Providence, RI
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| Abstract: | Three experiments using rats examined whether a signal for the nonreinforcement of an instrumental response (S-) provided information about the identity of the omitted outcome. In all three experiments, one stimulus was established as a signal for the nonreinforcement of a response that earned food pellets and another stimulus signaled the nonreinforcement of a response that earned liquid sucrose. Experiment 1 found that each S-suppressed another instrumental response trained with the same outcome significantly more than a response trained with a different outcome. Using a variant of this transfer design, Experiment 2 demonstrated that an S- was slower to develop discriminative control over a new response reinforced in its presence with the same outcome compared with an outcome different from the one whose omission-the S- had previously signaled. Experiment 3 examined transfer of the S- stimuli to a response trained with two outcomes, one of which had subsequently been devalued. Performance of this response significantly increased in the presence of a signal for the omission of the devalued outcome, but decreased in the presence of a signal for the omission of the valued outcome. These results suggest that S-s do provide information about the identity of omitted response-contingent outcomes. |
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