Feature-Positive Effect in Adults and Attention to Portion of Stimulus Array

Abstract

In three experiments, adult humans were tested in a feature-positive or feature-negative simultaneous symbol task. In Experiment 1, some persons focused on the correct side of the stimulus cards, whereas other persons focused on the not-correct side of the stimulus cards. The feature-positive group learned faster than the feature-negative group did in the correct side condition; the feature-negative group learned faster than the feature-positive group did in the not-correct side condition. In Experiments 2 and 3, all persons focused on both the correct and not-correct sides of the stimulus cards. Under these circumstances, feature-positive and feature-negative performances were comparable. These results indicated that the usual superiority of feature-positive over feature-negative learning results from a tendency to attend to only a portion of the stimulus array.

Serial feature positive and feature negative discrimination learning in a taste avoidance preparation: implications for interoceptive control of behavior

“…The difficulty of FN learning is consistent with the FP effect demonstrated in other discrimination designs, which show that discrimination is more rapidly acquired when the feature signals reinforcement than when it signals nonreinforcement (Jenkins and Sainsbury, 1969;Reberg and LeClerc, 1977;Hearst, 1978;Brown et al, 1983;Lotz et al, 2012;Abramson et al, 2013). Interestingly, the difference between FP and FN learning appears to be greater in the CTA/DDL model than the difference demonstrated in discrimination procedures using a reward contingency (e.g.…”

“…Although FP and FN discrimination procedures in general appear operationally symmetrical, early research has suggested various asymmetries between the acquisition of FP and FN discriminations (Jenkins and Sainsbury, 1970; Hearst, 1984). For example, FP discriminations are typically acquired faster than FN discrimination in experiments using the traditional light/tone procedures and the discriminated goal-tracking designs (Jenkins and Sainsbury, 1969; Reberg and LeClerc, 1977; Hearst, 1978; Brown et al ., 1983; Lotz et al ., 2012; Abramson et al ., 2013; Andrade et al ., 2021). Furthermore, FP and FN discriminations have been shown to have different neurobiological mediation (Holland et al ., 1999; Sakimoto and Sakata, 2014; Ito and Lee, 2016) and drugs trained as a positive vs. negative feature acquire different properties (e.g.…”