Chapter+13+Stimulus+Generalization+ANSWERS


 * Chapter 13 **
 * Stimulus Generalization **

** ANSWERS **


 * 1. REVIEW:** Please write the definitions for **stimulus generalization** and its opposite, **stimulus discrimination**.


 * ANSWER:**
 * Stimulus Generalization –** The behavioral contingencies in the presence of one stimulus affect the frequency of the response in the presence of another stimulus.
 * Stimulus Discrimination –** The occurrence of a response more frequently in the presence of one stimulus than in the presence of another.

Stimulus generalization gradients – the pigeon and the colored light stimuli

2. Describe the training procedure and the rationale behind using it.


 * ANSWER:**
 * The pigeon’s behavior of pecking the key in the presence of a yellow-green light was intermittently reinforced.
 * Intermittent reinforcement was used to increase the behavior’s resistance to extinction.
 * A greater resistance to extinction was necessary in order to ensure that a more complete generalization gradient would be demonstrated in the data before the behavior extinguished (and the gradient visually dropped off).
 * //(Obviously the researchers had a clue of what they were looking for, because the experiment could have been done using continuous reinforcement, but the data would not have looked as impressive.//)

3. Describe the testing procedure and the rationale behind using it.


 * ANSWER:**
 * The testing procedure involved presenting the novel stimuli of different colored lights and recording whether the pigeon pecked the key.
 * Extinction was used and no key pecks were reinforced (for any color). This was done in order to eliminate any effects that would have occurred from discrimination training.
 * //(Because had the researchers continued to intermittently reinforce pecks in the presence of the yellow-green light, the pigeon would have learned to discriminate between that stimulus and all of the other colored lights. The researchers wanted to test how much the **previous** reinforcement for key-peck behavior in the presence of the yellow-green light affected key-peck behavior in the presence of other colored lights **currently**.)//

4. Graph some hypothetical results illustrating complete generalization between the light colors.

5. Graph some hypothetical results illustrating complete discrimination between the light colors.



6. Graph the more typical intermediate results.

7. Be able to speak **//fluently//** about the preceding graph.


 * ANSWER:**
 * The above graph provides an example of a stimulus-generalization gradient.
 * As the color of the light became increasingly different from the yellow-green light //(which is in the middle of the color spectrum, so in other words, as the color hue approached red or blue//) the pigeon pecked the key less. This therefore illustrates less generalization as the stimulus becomes less similar to the training stimulus. The pigeon was more likely to **discriminate** between hues colors that were //more different// in hue (red or blue) than the training stimulus.
 * Alternately, the pigeon was more likely to **generalize** between colors that were //more similar// in hue to yellow-green (such as pure yellow or pure green)