Emergent relations in pigeons following training with temporal samples

In two experiments, we investigated emergent conditional relations in pigeons using a symbolic matching-to-sample task with temporal stimuli as the samples and hues as the comparisons. Both experiments comprised three phases. In Phase I, pigeons learned to choose a red keylight (R) but not a green keylight (G) after a 1-s signal. They also learned to choose G but not R after a 4-s signal. In Phase II, correct responding consisted of choosing a blue keylight (B) after a 4-s signal and a yellow keylight (Y) after a 16-s signal. Comparisons G and B were both related to the same 4-s sample, whereas comparisons R and Y had no common sample. In Phase III, R and G were presented as samples, and B and Y were presented as the comparisons. The choice of B was correct following G, and the choice of Y was correct following R. If a relation between comparisons that shared a common sample were to emerge, then responding to B given G would be more likely than responding to Y given R. The results were generally consistent with this prediction, suggesting, for the first time in pigeons, the emergence of novel relations that involve temporal stimuli as nodal samples.This research was supported by doctoral grants to E.M.H. (FAPESP 60678-4/05 and CAPES 0103/08 0) and S.M.V. (CNPq 142544/2005-1 and CAPES 4457 07 2). G.Y.T. and D.G.d.S. were supported by a research productivity fellowship from The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil). A.D.M. was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). All of the Brazilian authors are currently affiliated with the National Institute of Science and Technology on Behavior, Cognition and Teaching, supported by FAPESP (Grant No. 08/57705-8) and CNPq (Grant No. 573972/2008-7). The data were collected in the Animal Learning and Behavior Laboratory, University of Minho, Portugal, and were presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Psychology (SBP), Goiania, Brazil, in October 2009. E.M.H. is currently a college professor at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio