Basic processes in the development of stimulus classes and emergent behavior

描述(由申请人提供)：将物体、词语、声音和其他感官事件等身体上不同的刺激归入同一类别是认知发展和功能的意义、理解和其他方面的基础。这个应用程序研究的是基本的学习过程，这些过程是刺激类形成和由此产生的新行为的基础，新行为是正常人类发育的一个特征，在发育障碍的人中往往是不足的，需要行为补救。广泛的目标是证明，即使在没有语言的情况下，通过强化和非强化在特定刺激对之间建立特定的条件关系也会产生一组可互换的刺激(即刺激类别)，这从随后对这些刺激的新的、未经训练的组合做出适当反应的能力中可见一斑。该项目的目的是展示这种学习如何产生在非人类动物中很少(如果有的话)看到的明确的紧急行为实例，严格测试一个模型的预测，该模型假设序号位置被编码为刺激的功能特征的一部分，并测试这样的假设，即常规地不强化某些刺激组合而加强其他组合会产生包含后者元素的刺激类别。在所有拟议的研究中，拥有其他既定分类能力的非语言动物(鸽子)将同时接受进行/不进行匹配任务的训练，在该任务中，某些序列的样本和比较刺激以强化结束，而其他序列则不是。稍后，将通过呈现这些相同刺激的新序列来测试刺激类别的形成。除了揭示紧急效应，这些测试还将同时评估假设的功能刺激的特定顺序特性，以及在整个训练过程中持续暴露于非强化(以及强化)的重要性。总而言之，预期的研究结果模式将证明，基本的、一般的学习过程--特别是用于建立条件刺激关系的强化偶发事件--即使在没有语言及其神经结构和路径的情况下也可以产生刺激类别。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Categorizing physically dissimilar stimuli such as objects, words, sounds, and other sensory events into the same class is fundamental to meaning, comprehension, and other aspects of cognitive development and functioning. This application studies fundamental learning processes that underlie stimulus-class formation and the resultant emergence of novel behavior, a characteristic of normal human development that is often deficient and in need of behavioral remediation in individuals with developmental disabilities. The broad objective is to demonstrate that even in the absence of language, establishing particular conditional relations between specific pairs of stimuli via reinforcement versus non-reinforcement yields sets of interchangeable stimuli (viz., stimulus classes) as evidenced by the subsequent ability to respond appropriately to novel, untrained combinations of those stimuli. The project aims are to show how such learning yields well-defined instances of emergent behavior rarely (if ever) seen in non-human animals, rigorously test the predictions of a model which assumes that ordinal position is coded as part of a stimulus' functional characteristics, and test the hypothesis that routinely non-reinforcing certain stimulus combinations while reinforcing other combinations generates stimulus classes containing the elements of the latter. In all of the proposed research, non-verbal animals possessing other, established categorization abilities (pigeons) will be concurrently trained on go/no-go matching tasks in which certain sequences of sample and comparison stimuli end in reinforcement whereas others do not. Later, stimulus-class formation will be tested by presenting novel sequences of those same stimuli. Besides revealing emergent effects, these tests will simultaneously evaluate the ordinal-specific properties of the hypothesized functional stimuli and the importance of continual exposure to non-reinforcement (as well as reinforcement) throughout training. Together, the expected pattern of findings will demonstrate that basic, general learning processes - in particular, the reinforcement contingencies used to establish conditional stimulus relations - can generate stimulus classes even in the absence of language and its neural structures and pathways.