Disruption of overlearned discriminative behavior in monkeys (Cebus paella) by delay of reward |
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| Authors: | Jacquilyn K Cox M R D’Amato |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Busch Campus, 08903, New Brunswick, New Jersey
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| Abstract: | Previous work has shown that when a delay of reward (DOR) is introduced into a well-learned discrimination, even gradually, discriminative performance deteriorates and, with moderately long DORs, does not recover with practice. The present experiment assessed whether the decrement in performance was due to an associative loss or to a decline in the incentive value of the reward object caused by the DOR. Cebus monkeys were trained on a simple visual discrimination and tested with either a DOR or an identical delay period which preceded the appearance of S+ and S? (“predelay” trials); reinforcement on predelay trials was immediate. On half of the daily trials, the animals were given the option of choosing either the DOR or the predelay trial. The duration of the delay was increased gradually until terminal delays of 32 to 128 sec were reached. All four animals maintained almost errorless performance on predelay trials; in contrast, their error rate reached 36% on DOR trials. Surprisingly, none of the animals learned to choose predelay over DOR trials. Both results were interpreted in terms of the incentive loss hypothesis. |
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