Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons

Robert G Cook; Edward A Wasserman

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377804.003.0017

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Book chapter

Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons

Robert G Cook and Edward A Wasserman

Comparative Cognition

Oxford University Press

04/08/2009

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377804.003.0017

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Abstract

Stability and change are fundamental features of the world that must be discriminated and responded to in order for organisms to survive and reproduce. Thinking about the nature of complexity in general has suggested that the boundary between stability and change is a vital biological and psychological location that influences a wide variety of adaptive behaviors. One important aspect of this border revolves around being able to detect the abstract relations among various kinds of stimuli. One such stimulus relation involves the complementary twin concepts of sameness and difference. Recent research has shown that both humans and animals can perceive, discriminate, and produce constancy (sameness) and variability (difference) in a variety of settings. Because of its importance to understanding animal cognition, two laboratories, quite independently, started to investigate how pigeons learn one type of relational learning task — the same/different discrimination.

constancy

adaptive behaviors

change

difference

same/different discrimination

sameness

pigeons

variability

relational learning

stability

Details

Title: Subtitle: Relational Discrimination Learning in Pigeons
Creators: Robert G Cook
Edward A Wasserman
Resource Type: Book chapter
Publication Details: Comparative Cognition
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377804.003.0017
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Date published: 04/08/2009
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984070663302771

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