Abstract

BRINO, Ana Leda de Faria; GALVAO, Olavo de Faria  and  BARROS, Romariz da Silva. Successive identity matching to sample tests without reinforcement in Cebus apella. Ciênc. cogn. [online]. 2009, vol.14, n.2, pp. 02-11. ISSN 1806-5821.

In the research on emergent stimulus control (e.g., generalized identity matching and equivalence class formation) with matching to sample procedure, it is common using test protocols for emergent repertoires in the absence of reinforcement. There are, however, problems in the use of this type of test protocol with non-human subjects: negative results can be attributed to discriminated extinction of performance during tests. The objective of the present study was to create conditions to carry out tests in the absence of reinforcement with a capuchin monkey with history of highly accurate identity matching under continuous reinforcement (CRF) conditions. A 0-delay matching to sample procedure was used. Successive identity matching test sessions were arranged in a way that test trials were intermixed in baseline trials. Sessions with test trials in CRF were alternated with sessions with test trials with no reinforcement and with baseline sessions under intermittent reinforcement. Alternating test and baseline sessions with different reinforcement probabilities was sufficient to maintain performance well above chance in almost all testing sessions (20 out of 21). The capuchin monkey successfully showed highly accurate identity matching with completely new stimuli, in sessions with or without reinforcement. Future studies can use the same design to test emergent performances in arbitrary matching-to-sample with non-humans subjects

Keywords : identity matching-to-sample; tests without reinforcement; Cebus apella.

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