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Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study

In the basic verbal task from Piaget, when a relation of the form if A > B and B > C is given, a logical inference A > C is expected. This process is called transitive inference (TI). The adapted version for animals involves the presentation of a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli...

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Autores principales: Camarena, Héctor O., García-Leal, Óscar, Delgadillo-Orozco, Julieta, Barrón, Erick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10097881/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37063537
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1111597
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author Camarena, Héctor O.
García-Leal, Óscar
Delgadillo-Orozco, Julieta
Barrón, Erick
author_facet Camarena, Héctor O.
García-Leal, Óscar
Delgadillo-Orozco, Julieta
Barrón, Erick
author_sort Camarena, Héctor O.
collection PubMed
description In the basic verbal task from Piaget, when a relation of the form if A > B and B > C is given, a logical inference A > C is expected. This process is called transitive inference (TI). The adapted version for animals involves the presentation of a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli pairs. In this way, when A+B−, B+C−, C+D−, D+E− is trained, a B>D preference is expected, assuming that if A>B>C>D>E, then B>D. This effect has been widely reported using several procedures and different species. In the current experiment TI was evaluated employing probabilistic reinforcement. Thus, for the positive stimuli a .7 probability was administered and for the negative stimuli a .3 probability was administered. Under this arrangement the relation A>B>C>D>E is still allowed, but TI becomes more difficult. Five pigeons (Columba Livia) were exposed to the mentioned arrangement. Only one pigeon reached the criterion in C+D− discrimination, whereas the remaining did not. Only the one who successfully solved C+D− was capable of learning TI, whereas the others were not. Additionally, it was found that correct response ratios did not predict BD performance. Consequently, probabilistic reinforcement disrupted TI, but some positional ordering was retained in the test. The results suggest that TI might be affected by associative strength but also by the positional ordering of the stimuli. The discussion addresses the two main accounts of TI: the associative account and the ordinal representation account.
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spelling pubmed-100978812023-04-14 Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study Camarena, Héctor O. García-Leal, Óscar Delgadillo-Orozco, Julieta Barrón, Erick Front Psychol Psychology In the basic verbal task from Piaget, when a relation of the form if A > B and B > C is given, a logical inference A > C is expected. This process is called transitive inference (TI). The adapted version for animals involves the presentation of a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli pairs. In this way, when A+B−, B+C−, C+D−, D+E− is trained, a B>D preference is expected, assuming that if A>B>C>D>E, then B>D. This effect has been widely reported using several procedures and different species. In the current experiment TI was evaluated employing probabilistic reinforcement. Thus, for the positive stimuli a .7 probability was administered and for the negative stimuli a .3 probability was administered. Under this arrangement the relation A>B>C>D>E is still allowed, but TI becomes more difficult. Five pigeons (Columba Livia) were exposed to the mentioned arrangement. Only one pigeon reached the criterion in C+D− discrimination, whereas the remaining did not. Only the one who successfully solved C+D− was capable of learning TI, whereas the others were not. Additionally, it was found that correct response ratios did not predict BD performance. Consequently, probabilistic reinforcement disrupted TI, but some positional ordering was retained in the test. The results suggest that TI might be affected by associative strength but also by the positional ordering of the stimuli. The discussion addresses the two main accounts of TI: the associative account and the ordinal representation account. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10097881/ /pubmed/37063537 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1111597 Text en Copyright © 2023 Camarena, García-Leal, Delgadillo-Orozco and Barrón. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Camarena, Héctor O.
García-Leal, Óscar
Delgadillo-Orozco, Julieta
Barrón, Erick
Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study
title Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study
title_full Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study
title_fullStr Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study
title_full_unstemmed Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study
title_short Probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: A preliminary study
title_sort probabilistic reinforcement precludes transitive inference: a preliminary study
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10097881/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37063537
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1111597
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