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A Category-Overshadowing Effect in Pigeons: Support for the Common Elements Model of Object Categorization Learning
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A Category-Overshadowing Effect in Pigeons: Support for the Common Elements Model of Object Categorization Learning

Fabian A Soto and Edward A Wasserman
Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, Vol.38(3), pp.322-328
07/2012
DOI: 10.1037/a0028803
PMCID: PMC3513276
PMID: 22823423
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3513276View
Open Access

Abstract

A model proposing error-driven learning of associations between representations of stimulus properties and responses can account for many findings in the literature on object categorization by nonhuman animals. Furthermore, the model generates predictions that have been confirmed in both pigeons and people, suggesting that these learning processes are widespread across distantly related species. The present work reports evidence of a category-overshadowing effect in pigeons' categorization of natural objects, a novel behavioral phenomenon predicted by the model. Object categorization learning was impaired when a second category of objects provided redundant information about correct responses. The same impairment was not observed when single objects provided redundant information, but the category to which they belonged was uninformative, suggesting that this effect is different from simple overshadowing, arising from competition among stimulus categories rather than individual stimuli during learning.
pigeon associative learning overshadowing prediction error object categorization

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