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Author Terrace, H.S. doi  openurl
  Title Chunking by a pigeon in a serial learning task Type Journal Article
  Year 1987 Publication (down) Nature Abbreviated Journal Nature  
  Volume 325 Issue 7000 Pages 149-151  
  Keywords Animals; Cognition/*physiology; Columbidae/*physiology; Feedback; Learning/*physiology; Male  
  Abstract A basic principle of human memory is that lists that can be organized into memorable 'chunks' are easier to remember. Memory span is limited to a roughly constant number of chunks and is to a large extent independent of the amount of informaton contained in each chunk. Depending on the ingenuity of the code used to integrate discrete items into chunks, one can substantially increase the number of items that can be recalled correctly. Newly developed paradigms for studying memory in non-verbal organisms allow comparison of the abilities of human and non-human subjects to memorize lists. Here I present two types of evidence that pigeons 'chunk' 5-element lists whose components (colours and achromatic geometric forms) are clustered into distinct groups. Those lists were learned twice as rapidly as a homogeneous list of colours or heterogeneous lists in which the elements are not clustered. The pigeons were also tested for knowledge of the order of two elements drawn from the 5-element lists. They responded in the correct order only to those subsets that contained a chunk boundary. Thus chunking can be studied profitably in animal subjects; the cognitive processes that allow an organism to form chunks do no presuppose linguistic competence.  
  Address  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0028-0836 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:3808071 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2792  
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Author Singer, R.A.; Klein, E.D.; Zentall, T.R. openurl 
  Title Use of a single-code/default strategy by pigeons to acquire duration sample discriminations Type Journal Article
  Year 2006 Publication (down) Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav  
  Volume 34 Issue 4 Pages 340-347  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Columbidae; *Discrimination (Psychology); *Reaction Time; Retention (Psychology); *Signal Detection (Psychology)  
  Abstract Past evidence that pigeons may adopt a single-code/default strategy to solve duration sample discriminations may be attributable to the similarity between the intertrial interval (ITI) and the retention interval. The present experiments tested whether pigeons would adopt a single-code/default strategy when possible ITI-retention-interval ambiguity was eliminated and sample salience was increased. Previous studies of duration sample discriminations that have purported to show evidence for the use of a single-code/default coding strategy have used durations of 0, 2, and 10 sec (Zentall, Klein, and Singer, 2004). However, the results of Experiment 1 suggest that the use of a 0-sec sample may produce an artifact resulting in inadvertent present/absent sample matching. In Experiment 2, when pigeons were trained with three nonzero duration samples (2, 8, and 32 sec), clear evidence for the use of a single-code/default strategy was found.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. rasing2@uky.edu  
  Corporate Author Thesis  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:17330523 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 215  
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Author Gibson, B.M.; Juricevic, I.; Shettleworth, S.J.; Pratt, J.; Klein, R.M. openurl 
  Title Looking for inhibition of return in pigeons Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication (down) Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav  
  Volume 33 Issue 3 Pages 296-308  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Columbidae; *Inhibition (Psychology); Reinforcement (Psychology)  
  Abstract We conducted four experiments in order to investigate whether pigeons' responses to a recently attended (i.e., recently pecked) location are inhibited. In Experiments 1 and 2, stimulus displays were similar to those used in studies of inhibition of return (IOR) with humans; responses to cued targets tended to be facilitated rather than inhibited. In Experiments 3 and 4, birds were presented with stimulus displays that mimicked clusters of small grains and were relatively localized, which should have been more appropriate for detecting IOR in pigeons. The results from these experiments again provided evidence for facilitation of responding to cued targets, rather than for IOR.  
  Address University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. bgibson@cisunix.unh.edu  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:16396077 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 359  
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Author Zentall, T.R. doi  openurl
  Title Support for a theory of memory for event duration must distinguish between test-trial ambiguity and actual memory loss Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication (down) Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Abbreviated Journal J Exp Anal Behav  
  Volume 72 Issue 3 Pages 467-472  
  Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant/physiology; Discrimination Learning/physiology; Memory/*physiology; *Psychological Theory; Time Factors; Time Perception/physiology  
  Abstract Staddon and Higa's (1999) trace-strength theory of timing and memory for event duration can account for pigeons' bias to “choose short” when retention intervals are introduced and to “choose long” when, following training with a fixed retention interval, retention intervals are shortened. However, it does not account for the failure of pigeons to choose short when the intertrial interval is distinct from the retention interval. That finding suggests that stimulus generalization (or ambiguity) between the intertrial interval and the retention interval may result in an effect that has been attributed to memory loss. Such artifacts must be eliminated before a theory of memory for event duration can be adequately tested.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. zentall@pop.uky.edu  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-5002 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:10605105 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 251  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Roper, K.L.; Sherburne, L.M. doi  openurl
  Title Most directed forgetting in pigeons can be attributed to the absence of reinforcement on forget trials during training or to other procedural artifacts Type Journal Article
  Year 1995 Publication (down) Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Abbreviated Journal J Exp Anal Behav  
  Volume 63 Issue 2 Pages 127-137  
  Keywords Animals; *Attention; Color Perception; Columbidae; Cues; *Discrimination Learning; *Mental Recall; Motivation; Pattern Recognition, Visual; *Reinforcement Schedule; Retention (Psychology)  
  Abstract In research on directed forgetting in pigeons using delayed matching procedures, remember cues, presented in the delay interval between sample and comparisons, have been followed by comparisons (i.e., a memory test), whereas forget cues have been followed by one of a number of different sample-independent events. The source of directed forgetting in delayed matching to sample in pigeons was examined in a 2 x 2 design by independently manipulating whether or not forget-cue trials in training ended with reinforcement and whether or not forget-cue trials in training included a simultaneous discrimination (involving stimuli other than those used in the matching task). Results were consistent with the hypothesis that reinforced responding following forget cues is sufficient to eliminate performance deficits on forget-cue probe trials. Only when reinforcement was omitted on forget-cue trials in training (whether a discrimination was required or not) was there a decrement in accuracy on forget-cue probe trials. When reinforcement is present, however, the pattern of responding established during and following a forget cue in training may also play a role in the directed forgetting effect. These findings support the view that much of the evidence for directed forgetting using matching procedures may result from motivational and behavioral artifacts rather than the loss of memory.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-5002 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:7714447 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 256  
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Author Biederman, G.B.; Robertson, H.A.; Vanayan, M. doi  openurl
  Title Observational learning of two visual discriminations by pigeons: a within-subjects design Type Journal Article
  Year 1986 Publication (down) Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior Abbreviated Journal J Exp Anal Behav  
  Volume 46 Issue 1 Pages 45-49  
  Keywords Animals; Attention; Columbidae; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; *Discrimination Learning; *Imitative Behavior; Male; Visual Perception  
  Abstract Pigeon's observational learning of successive visual discrimination was studied using within-subject comparisons of data from three experimental conditions. Two pairs of discriminative stimuli were used; each bird was exposed to two of the three experimental conditions, with different pairs of stimuli used in a given bird's two conditions. In one condition, observers were exposed to visual discriminative stimuli only. In a second condition, subjects were exposed to a randomly alternating sequence of two stimuli where the one that would subsequently be used as S+ was paired with the operation of the grain magazine. In a third experimental condition, subjects were exposed to the performance of a conspecific in the operant discrimination procedure. After exposures to conspecific performances, there was facilitation of discriminative learning, relative to that which followed exposures to stimulus and reinforcement sequences or exposures to stimulus sequences alone. Exposure to stimulus and food-delivery sequences enhanced performance relative to exposure to stimulus sequences alone. The differential effects of these three types of exposure were not attributable to order effects or to task difficulty; rather, they clearly were due to the type of exposure.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0022-5002 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:3746187 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 853  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Klein, E.D.; Singer, R.A. doi  openurl
  Title Evidence for detection of one duration sample and default responding to other duration samples by pigeons may result from an artifact of retention-test ambiguity Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication (down) Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 30 Issue 2 Pages 129-134  
  Keywords Animals; Artifacts; Association Learning; Columbidae; *Discrimination Learning; *Recognition (Psychology); *Retention (Psychology); *Time Perception; *Transfer (Psychology)  
  Abstract S. C. Gaitan and J. T. Wixted (2000) proposed that when pigeons are trained on a conditional discrimination to associate 1 duration sample with 1 comparison and 2 other duration samples with a 2nd comparison, they detect only the single duration, and on trials involving either of the 2 other duration samples, they respond to the other comparison by default. In 2 experiments, the authors show instead that pigeons lend to treat the retention intervals (such as those used by Gaitan and Wixted) as intertrial intervals, and thus, they tend to treat all trials with a delay as 0-s sample trials. The authors tested this hypothesis by showing that divergent retention functions do not appear when the retention interval is discriminably different from the intertrial interval.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0044, USA. zentall@uky.edu  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:15078122 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 232  
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Author Kaiser, D.H.; Zentall, T.R.; Neiman, E. openurl 
  Title Timing in pigeons: effects of the similarity between intertrial interval and gap in a timing signal Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication (down) Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 28 Issue 4 Pages 416-422  
  Keywords Animals; *Attention; Columbidae; *Conditioning, Operant; Discrimination Learning; Mental Recall; Probability Learning; *Reinforcement (Psychology); *Reinforcement Schedule; Retention (Psychology); Time Factors; *Time Perception/physiology  
  Abstract Previous research suggests that when a fixed interval is interrupted (known as the gap procedure), pigeons tend to reset memory and start timing from 0 after the gap. However, because the ambient conditions of the gap typically have been the same as during the intertrial interval (ITI), ambiguity may have resulted. In the present experiment, the authors found that when ambient conditions during the gap were similar to the ITI, pigeons tended to reset memory, but when ambient conditions during the gap were different from the ITI, pigeons tended to stop timing, retain the duration of the stimulus in memory, and add to that time when the stimulus reappeared. Thus, when the gap was unambiguous, pigeons timed accurately.  
  Address Department of Psychology, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858, USA. kaiserd@mail.ecu.edu  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12395499 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 238  
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Author Clement, T.S.; Zentall, T.R. openurl 
  Title Second-order contrast based on the expectation of effort and reinforcement Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication (down) Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 64-74  
  Keywords Animals; Columbidae; Discrimination Learning; Random Allocation; *Reinforcement (Psychology)  
  Abstract Pigeons prefer signals for reinforcement that require greater effort (or time) to obtain over those that require less effort to obtain (T. S. Clement, J. Feltus, D. H. Kaiser, & T. R. Zentall, 2000). Preference was attributed to contrast (or to the relatively greater improvement in conditions) produced by the appearance of the signal when it was preceded by greater effort. In Experiment 1, the authors of the present study demonstrated that the expectation of greater effort was sufficient to produce such a preference (a second-order contrast effect). In Experiments 2 and 3, low versus high probability of reinforcement was substituted for high versus low effort, respectively, with similar results. In Experiment 3, the authors found that the stimulus preference could be attributed to positive contrast (when the discriminative stimuli represented an improvement in the probability of reinforcement) and perhaps also negative contrast (when the discriminative stimuli represented reduction in the probability of reinforcement).  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, USA  
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  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11868235 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 241  
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Author Zentall, T.R.; Clement, T.S. openurl 
  Title Memory mechanisms in pigeons: evidence of base-rate neglect Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication (down) Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes Abbreviated Journal J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process  
  Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 111-115  
  Keywords Animals; Columbidae; Discrimination Learning; Memory/*physiology; Random Allocation; Reaction Time; Reinforcement (Psychology); Retention (Psychology)  
  Abstract In delayed matching to sample, once acquired, pigeons presumably choose comparisons according to their memory for (the strength of) the sample. When memory for the sample is sufficiently weak, comparison choice should depend on the history of reinforcement associated with each of the comparison stimuli. In the present research, pigeons acquired two matching tasks in which Sample S1 was associated with one comparison from each task, C1 and C3, whereas Sample S2 was associated with Comparison C2, and Sample S3 was associated with Comparison C4. As the retention interval increased, the pigeons showed a bias to choose the comparison (C1 or C3) associated with the more frequently occurring sample (S1). Thus, pigeons were sensitive also to the (irrelevant) likelihood that each of the samples was presented. The results suggest that pigeons may allow their reference memory for the overall sample frequency to influence comparison choice, independent of the comparison stimuli present.  
  Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0044, USA. zentall@pop.uky.edu  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0097-7403 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes PMID:11868229 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 242  
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