Auditory generalization gradients for response latency in the monkey

Abstract

Two monkeys were trained to press and hold a response key in the presence of a light and to release it at the onset of a pure tone. Initially, all responses with latencies shorter than 1 sec were reinforced without regard to the frequency of the pure tone, and the intensity of the pure tone that resulted in equal latencies at each frequency was determined. The second stage of the experiment consisted of discrimination training, during which releases to one pure-tone frequency (positive stimulus) were reinforced and releases to a second frequency (negative stimulus) were extinguished. Median latencies to the negative stimulus slowly increased as did the variability of the latency distribution for the negative stimulus. There was no evidence of a concurrent decrease in latencies to the positive stimulus indicative of behavioral contrast. The third part of the experiment consisted of determining maintained generalization gradients by increasing the number of nonreinforcement stimuli. The gradients that eventually resulted showed approximately equal latencies to all frequencies of the negative stimulus and shorter latencies to the positive stimulus frequency.