Question

White and Brown (2011) trained pigeons in a delayed matching-to-sample procedure where a house light was presented for the first 3 seconds of the retention interval and then turned off for the remainder of the interval. The results from this test can be described as:

A - consistent with trace' accounts of memory in that performance increased as the retention interval increased
B - consistent with the 'trace' accounts of memory in that performance was slightly improved in short intervals where the house light was turned off
after 3 seconds
C - consistent with discrimination accounts of memory in that performance
improved slightly in conditions where the house light was turned off after 3 seconds
D - consistent with discrimination accounts of memory in that performance was highest in conditions where the house light was presented during the entire retention interval

Answer 1

The best description of the test results is option B, indicating that pigeon performance improved slightly when the house light was turned off after 3 seconds, consistent with 'trace' memory accounts.

Step-by-step explanation:

The results from the delayed matching-to-sample procedure performed by White and Brown (2011) on pigeons are best described as: B - consistent with the 'trace' accounts of memory in that performance was slightly improved in short intervals where the house light was turned off after 3 seconds.

This suggests that the pigeons were using some memory trace to remember the sample during the brief retention interval, with their performance being slightly better when the house light was off after the first few seconds. This finding is linked to the studies on short-term memory decay, such as the work by Peterson and Peterson (1959), which demonstrated that memory can fade quickly without reinforcement, and by Keppel and Underwood (1962) on proactive interference affecting memory retention.