EFFECTS OF RESPONSE‐PRODUCED STIMULI UPON CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE 1

Abstract

In zero‐delay matching procedures the performance of three groups of pigeons was examined when exteroceptive stimuli, response‐produced stimuli associated with the completion of either of two fixed ratios, or a compound of exteroceptive and response‐produced stimuli were available as samples. Exteroceptive samples were found to control a higher level of matching accuracy than response‐produced samples, while compound samples controlled a higher level of accuracy than did exteroceptive samples alone. When all subjects were placed on a transfer procedure, during which the previously used red and green samples were replaced by horizontal and vertical lines, the availability of sample‐specific fixed‐ratios facilitated acquisition of the task.