Contribution of nesting experience to progesterone-induced incubation in ring doves (Streptopelia risoria)

Injections of progesterone induce incubation behavior in gonadally intact ring doves only if the doves have had previous experience with at least the nest-building phase of a breeding cycle. The present study was designed to determine whether exposure to progesterone during the nest-building phase is sufficient to account for the ability of progesterone to induce incubation at a later time or whether some other factor provided by experience with this phase of the cycle is needed. Six groups of 10 pairs of doves each were provided with different combinations of experience and progesterone priming. Progesterone priming combined with social isolation or with courtship experience had no significant effect on subsequent progesterone-induced incubation. However, doves that participated in the nesting phase of the cycle during progesterone priming later incubated in response to progesterone treatment. Nesting activity, which may or may not include building the nest, seemed to be the relevant experience.     

A mathematical model for conditioning

It is postulated that occurrence of a conditioned response depends on recurrence of one of a finite number of specific vigilance reactions. Number of trial on which a conditioned response occurs is shown to be a sufficient statistic for estimating the number of such vigilance reactions. The hypothesis is tested by noting whether numbers of trials on which conditioned responses occur fall within confidence intervals determined on the basis of a selected sufficient statistic. Applications of the model to psychological research are suggested.From a doctoral dissertation at Cornell University. The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable advice and help of Professor H. S. Liddell, under whose direction this research was conducted. A special debt of gratitude is due to Dr. Jack Kiefer of the Cornell department of mathematics, whose skill and interest aided materially in the development of the mathematical portions of this paper.     

Personality and conditioning: Some personality,cognitive and psychophysiological parameters of classical appetitive (sexual) GSR conditioning

A number of personality, cognitive and psychophysiological measures taken from a sample of 25 male volunteers were correlated with, classical (sexual) GSR acquisition and extinction rates, and the data factor analyzed. The acquisition and extinction factors identified were indexed by the psychophysiological (CS and US) variables. Cognitive and personality dimensions accounted for a negligible amount of variance.     

A way to install conditioned modulation in the Rescorla-Wagner Axiom: The amplifier model of Pavlovian conditioning (AMP)

Although the Rescorla-Wagner axiom has been successful in explaining and predicting many phenomena in Pavlovian conditioning, it offers no explanation for the ability of stimuli to modulate conditioned responding to other stimuli (i.e., the occasion-setting effect). This article provides a mathematical model for Pavlovian conditioned modulation by adding simple rules to the Rescorla-Wagner axiom. In spite of its rudimentary stage, the proposed model can explain many of the basic findings of modulatory learning and suggests some new areas of research.     

A new apparatus for the study of avoidance conditioning in fishes

An apparatus for the study of avoidance conditioning in fishes is described. The chamber is cylindrical in shape, with shocking electrodes placed above and below the animals, and response is defined as swimming a predetermined distance in either direction along a circumferential path. This apparatus has several advantages over the conventional shuttlebox: (1)There is little constraint on the direction of swimming; (2) the magnitude of response (swimming distance) required for avoidance can easily be varied over a wide range; and (3) variation in the effectiveness of shock with the position of the animal relative to the position of the electrodes is minimized. Some sample data obtained in a free-operant experiment with goldfish are presented.