Stimulus additivity and dominance in visual discrimination performance by rats.

Abstract

10 RATS WERE RUN IN A CUE ADDITIVITY AND CUE DOMINANCE EXPERIMENT IN WHICH THE CUES (IN THE BRIGHTNESS, SIZE, AND FORM DIMENSIONS) WERE 1ST SCALED PSYCHOPHYSICALLY. DISCRIMINATION PERFORMANCE IMPROVED AS A FUNCTION OF THE NUMBER AND INDIVIDUAL DISCRIMINABILITY OF THE COMPOUNDING VALUES PRESENT IN THE STIMULUS COMPLEX. SUPRATHRESHOLD BRIGHTNESS DIFFERENCES WERE FOUND TO BE PREFERRED TO SIZE AND FORM DIFFERENCES OF THE SAME ORDER OF DIFFICULTY. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)