Outcome expectancies as mediators for discriminative responding.

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Abstract
The mechanism that underlies the differential outcome effect in acquisition and working memory in the pigeon was investigated. Different outcomes were cued by 2 pairs of colors which also served as initial stimuli in 2 delayed conditional discriminations. The test stimuli, common to both problems, were vertical and horizontal lines. The outcomes were arranged so that expectancies based on them would cue the same response patterns to the 2 test stimuli in both problems (consistent conditions), or opposite response patterns (inconsistent conditions). In experiment 1, the 2 problems were trained concurrently; acquisition was faster and reached a higher level in the consistent conditions. In experiment 2, transfer of a discrimination between pairs of initial stimuli was studied. Transfer based on consistent expectancies was almost perfect, but there was no transfer with inconsistent expectancies. Shifts from inconsistent to consistent training conditions had the expected effect of improving performance; shifts in the opposite direction worsened performance. Expectancies act as mediating cues and control discriminative behavior directly, strengthening or replacing the cues provided by initial stimuli.