Value transfer contributes to ambiguous-cue discrimination learning

Abstract

Pigeons learned two concurrent simultaneous discriminations in which the S- for one served as the S+ for the other. When all correct choices were reinforced, accuracy on the former (positive vs. ambiguous-cue or PA) discrimination was lower than on the latter (negative vs. ambiguous-cue or NA) discrimination. When correct choices on the PA discrimination were intermittently reinforced, however, pigeons chose the S- more often than the S+ on those trials. By contrast, intermittently reinforcing correct choices on the NA discrimination did not affect NA-trial accuracy but yielded higher PA-trial accuracy relative to continuous reinforcement Together with a separate preference assessment, these results indicate that value transfer, in which some of the positive value accrued by an S+ transfers to its companion S-, contributes to ambiguous-cue performances. Copyright 2007 Psychonomic Society, Inc.