Sargisson, R. J., & White, K. G. (2001).
Generalization of delayed matching to sample following training at different delays.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
75, 1-14.
Four groups of pigeons were trained to perform a delayed
matching-to-sample task with a single delay of 0, 2, 4, or 6 s
from the outset of training. The longer the training delay, the
more sessions were required for all birds to reach the same level
of response accuracy. Following initial training, five test
sessions that included nonreinforced trials with delay intervals
of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 s were interspersed between training
sessions. Unlike typical forgetting functions in which accuracy
decreases monotonically with increasing delay, the forgetting
functions from test sessions resembled generalization gradients
with the peak of the functions occurring at the training delay.
Following additional training for all birds with a 0-s delay,
forgetting functions decreased monotonically with increasing
delay. The results suggested that remembering can be trained at a
specific delay interval, and generalizes to similar delay
intervals. Generalization along the temporal dimension of delay
may contribute to typical forgetting functions in which accuracy
decreases from 0-s delay.
Key words: remembering, generalization, exponential forgetting,
delayed matching to sample, pigeon