Stimulus control of responding by sound location: a comparative study of monkey, rat and cat

• Main Author: Downey, Paul E.
• Language: en_US
• Published: Boston University 2019
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/37133

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University === PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at [e-mail]. Thank you. === Conditions for producing rapid control of responding by sound location were investigated in the monkey. Animals were required to alternate responding on two manipulanda in accordance with sound stimuli presented from two loudspeaker locations that alternated irregularly in a series of trials. For some animals, food reinforcement followed a response on the manipulandum nearer the sound location in each trial and timeout periods followed responses on the manipulandum further from the sound source (differential reinforcement schedule). Other animals received reinforcement following all responses in the presence of sound, regardless of location (nondifferential reinforcement schedule). Acquisition performances were obtained from monkeys with loudspeakers either adjacent to or spatially separate from response manipulanda (adjacent and nonadjacent conditions, respectively), using single brief noise bursts, or a 14 pulse train of noise bursts or 10 kHz tone bursts, and with the experimental chamber either illuminated or in darkness. The discrimination developed slowly in monkeys under the nonadjacent condition and rapidly under the adjacent condition. Adjacent acquisition rates were slightly faster in a nondifferential than in a differential reinforcement procedure, and were unaffected by the type of sound stimulus (noise or tone bursts), the number of noise bursts, or by the presence or absence of light illumination. Rapid adjacent acquisition was also obtained from cats, and rats produced rapid acquisition under both adjacent and nonadjacent conditions but slightly faster under the adjacent condition. The difference in acquisition rate obtained from rats under adjacent and nonadjacent conditions was considerably less than that obtained in the monkey. === 2031-01-01