Effects of Stimulus Predifferentiation (Familiarization) on Stimulus and Response Generalization of a Learned Motor Response

Abstract

3 groups of 50 Ss each were given either 0, 10, or 56 non-differentially reinforced presentations of 7 stimuli sampled from a numerosity continuum. Immediately following training of a 200° dialing movement to the median valued numerosity stimulus (S0), Ss were tested for generalization of the response to all 7 stimuli. Small, but significant, alterations in the bidirectional gradients of generalization around S0 occurred as a function of familiarization. No evidence of differential response generalization as a function of amount of familiarization or stimulus magnitude was observed.