Temporal dynamics of task switching and abstract-concept learning in pigeons

Temporal dynamics of task switching and abstract-concept learning in pigeons

The current study examined whether pigeons could learn to use abstract concepts as the basis for conditionally switching behavior as a function of time. Using a mid-session reversal task, experienced pigeons were trained to switch from matching-to-sample (MTS) to non-matching-to-sample (NMTS) conditional discriminations within a session. One group had prior training with MTS, while the other ha...

Same/different abstract-concept learning by pigeons.

Eight pigeons were trained and tested in a simultaneous same/different task. After pecking an upper picture, they pecked a lower picture to indicate same or a white rectangle to indicate different. Increases in the training set size from 8 to 1,024 items produced improved transfer from 51.3% to 84.6%. This is the first evidence that pigeons can perform a two-item same/different task as accurate...

Task-Switching in Pigeons

Human performance in task-switching paradigms is seen as a hallmark of executive-control processes: switching between tasks induces switch costs (such that performance when changing from Task A to Task B is worse than on trials where the task repeats), which is generally attributed to executive control suppressing one task-set and activating the other. However, even in cases where task-sets are...

Commentary: Task-Switching in Pigeons: Associative Learning or Executive Control?

Matching-to-sample abstract-concept learning by pigeons.

Abstract concepts--rules that transcend training stimuli--have been argued to be unique to some species. Pigeons, a focus of much concept-learning research, were tested for learning a matching-to-sample abstract concept. Five pigeons were trained with three cartoon stimuli. Pigeons pecked a sample 10 times and then chose which of two simultaneously presented comparison stimuli matched the sampl...