Transfer of a Discrimination and a Discrimination Reversal between Two Manipulandum-Defined Responses

Abstract

An experiment was performed to determine the extent to which the effects of continuous reinforcement, variable interval reinforcement, discrimination training, and discrimination reversal training would transfer between a vertical and a horizontal bar-pressing response in the free operant situation. No transfer of continuous or variable interval reinforcement was found. However, both discrimination training and discrimination reversal training showed very appreciable amounts of inter-response transfer. These results are discussed in terms of a mediational process involving classically conditioned mediators which exert discriminative control over overt responding.