Observe before responding

Abstract

The discrimination acquisition involves intertwined relationships of control be­tween observing responses and discriminated responses. Problems in discrimination may be related to inefficient observing and to irrelevant stimuli control of non-discriminated respons­es. The methodological objective of the experiment was to extend the discrimination acquisi­tion process to the analysis of irrelevant and relevant stimuli control on non-discriminated and discriminated responses. The process was repeated in a sequence of three simultaneous discriminations for performance analysis. The stimuli were manipulated in three different regions of a complex arrangement along the discriminations. Visual observing responses were recorded using eye movement tracking equipment. The ‘observing before responding’ perfor­mance was examined under conditions of non-differential reinforcement and extinction of non-discriminated responses under the control of irrelevant stimuli. The gradual reduction of non-discriminated responses along the discriminations occurred concomitantly with the control of observing and functionally equivalent responses (e.g., search, comparison) in the presence of stimuli.