A simple discrimination experiment with a continuum of responses

Abstract

This paper reports tests of several stochastic learning models for a continuum of responses in a simple discrimination experiment. The basic models are formulated in Suppes (1959, 1960). The only previous experiment in the literature directly testing these models, reported by Suppes and Frankmann (1961), is concerned with a simple learning situation with unimodal noncontingent determinate reinforcement. They describe their experiment as follows : The subject is told that his task on each trial is to predict by means of a pointer where a spot of light will appear on the circumference of a circle; the subject’s responses are his pointer predictions. At the end of each trial the “correct” position of the spot is shown to the subject; this is the reinforcing event for the trial. The response x and the reinforcement y vary continuously along the circle from O to Zn. The particular reinforcement distribution used by Suppes and Frankmann (1961)-was the triangular distribution on the interval O to Zn. The present experiment used the same circular apparatus. The most important modification was the introduction of a discrimination situation in the following manner: A panel of four lights was placed in front of the subject. At the beginning of each trial one of the four lights went on. Corresponding to each light was a different probability distribution for the reinforcement on the circle. The four reinforcement distributions were uniform with halfrange Z equal to z/10 radians for lights 1 and 3 and to 7c/5 radians for lights This research has been supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Directorate of Information Sciences, under Contract AF 49(638)-1037. Much of the computing related to the analysis of data has been supported by grant USPHS M-6154 from the National Institute of Mental Health. We are indebted to Jean Donio and Sylvia Garfinkel for assistance in the analysis of data, and to W. K. Estes and Joseph L. Zinnes for useful comments on the manuscript. 317

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