Effects of Trial 1 reward contingency, intertrial interval, and experience on intraproblem discrimination performance of monkeys.

Abstract
3 2-yr-old naive and 3 4-yr-old sophisticated rhesus monkeys were tested on a discrimination involving presentation of a single object (rewarded or nonrewarded) on Trial 1, followed by interval of 5 or 30 sec and then 6 additional trials with a constant 5-sec. intertrial interval. Significantly superiod Trial 2 performance followed non-rewarded Trial 1 responses by sophisticated Ss; subsequent intraproblem performance was essentially the same (90% correct). A similar effect of Trial 1 reward contingency was found in gradually improving intraproblem performance of naive Ss but only with 5-sec. intertrial interval. In general, performance following 30-sec intertrial interval was inferior. These data are interpreted as supporting an inhibition theory of discrimination learning.

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