Alternative accounts are preferable to value transfer theory: Commentary on Dorrance, Kaiser, and Zentall (1998) |
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| Authors: | Michael R F Aitken |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EB, Cambridge, England
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| Abstract: | Dorrance, Kaiser, and Zentall (1998) trained pigeons on two concurrent simultaneous discriminations (A+B?; C+D?), with interspersed single-stimulus trials in which responding to the two positive discriminanda was differentially reinforced (A+; C±). In each of four separate experiments, the birds showed a preference for stimulus B over stimulus D. Dorrance et al. concluded that the results of these experiments were best described in terms of value transfer theory (VTT; Fersen, Wynne, Delius, & Staddon, 1991). They reject the possibility that the results of these experiments might have been caused by differential nonreinforced experience with the test stimuli (B and D) on the basis of correlational analyses within each experiment. However, differences between experiments in choice of B over D are well predicted by differences in their history of reinforcement. Previous findings that were thought to favor VTT are also entirely consistent with a simpler associative analysis. |
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