Trace Autoshaping in Pigeons--Acquisition and Maintenance at Short Trace Intervals
Tsuneo Kito · QIR (Kyushu University Institutional Repository) (Kyushu University) · 1989
Three groups of pigeons were trained to examine the acquisition and maintenance of signal-directed key pecking under a trace conditioning procedure containing relatively short trace intervals.The 18 subjects were randomly assigned to three trace autoshaping conditions which contained a 2-sec, 4-sec, or 8-sec trace interval.All the six pigeons in the 2-sec trace group and five of the six pigeons in the 4sec trace group acquired and maintained the key pecking.In the 8-sec trace group, three of the six pigeons failed to develop the responding under the trace conditioning procedure.The percentage of CS trials with a key peck response was a decreasing function of the trace interval.A Kruskal-Wallis H test indicated a significant effect of trace interval.Subsequent Mann-Whitney U tests revealed reliable differences in the percentage of CS trials with a response between the 2-sec trace group and the other two groups.There were no differences between the 4-sec trace group and 8-sec trace group.