Transfer of hue matching in pigeons.
Pigeons matched never-seen hues without extra training, showing that matching-to-sample can create new stimulus classes.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers taught pigeons to peck the key that matched a sample hue.
They then swapped in brand-new hues the birds had never seen.
The task stayed the same: pick the key that matches the sample.
What they found
The pigeons picked the correct new hue right away.
Their speed stayed the same as with the old colors.
This looked like the birds treated the new hue as part of the same color class.
How this fits with other research
Howard (1979) got the same quick transfer using simultaneous matching instead of delayed.
Saunders et al. (1988) saw no symmetry or transitivity in their pigeons.
The difference: R et al. tested if the birds could reverse the relation (symmetry) and link three items (transitivity). J et al. only asked if the birds matched a new hue to a sample.
So the papers do not clash; they measure different parts of equivalence.
Haemmerlie (1983) later showed the same fast transfer works for key locations, not just colors.
Why it matters
For your learners, quick transfer means you may not need to teach every single color, shape, or word. Train a solid matching set first, then probe with one or two new items. If the learner passes, the class is forming. If not, add more exemplars and re-test. This saves teaching time and builds flexible skills that look like true understanding.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Pigeons were trained on a modified three-key matching-to-sample procedure, in which only one comparison key (rather than two) was lighted after an observing response to the center-key standard. Pecks on keys of matching comparison hues were reinforced. When non-matching hues appeared as the initially lighted comparisons, the nonmatching hue terminated and the matching hue appeared on the other side key only if the pigeon did not peck the nonmatching comparison for 4.8 sec. Pecks to the nonmatching hue reset the 4.8-sec delay interval. Three hues were used during acquisition. During transfer tests, two novel hues were substituted individually or together for one or two of the training hues. Latencies to the novel side-key hue were shortest when a novel matching hue appeared as the standard on the center key, and were essentially identical to baseline matching latencies. In contrast, when a novel hue appeared as either a standard or comparison in a nonmatching combination, latencies increased with increasing separation between the noevel hue and the nonmatching hue. These transfer data demonstrate the concept of hue matching.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1975 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1975.24-149