Date of Award
12-1977
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Arthur G. Snapper
Second Advisor
Dr. Frederick P. Gault
Third Advisor
Dr. M. Ray Denny
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
Three groups of rats learned a black-white discrimination in a Grice box. All subjects were reinforced with food pellets for correct choices. No-Retrace subjects were confined in the negative goal box after errors. Retrace subjects were allowed to withdraw after errors from the negative goal box to the choice point or start box. Take-Out subjects were manually removed from the goal box during errors immediately after inspecting the empty food dish. All subjects were trained to a criterion and then reversal training was instituted. Retrace subjects learned the original discrimination significantly slower than either No-Retrace or Take-Out subjects, which did not differ from one another. This effect was replicated when Retrace subjects also took more trials to learn the reversal. Apparently, post-nonreinforcement stimuli that Retrace subjects encountered retarded the discrimination learning.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Carl Merle, "The Effect of Withdrawal from the Negative Cue on Learning a Simultaneous Discrimination" (1977). Masters Theses. 2220.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/2220