ABSTRACT
This chapter has two purposes. The first is to address an important issue in the analysis of delayed matching-to-sample behavior in pigeons. If a pigeon is shown a display on a key containing both color and line orientation information, and has learned that a separate retention test may be given for either attribute, can it detect and store the information about both as efficiently, as either alone, as though it were processing both kinds of information in a parallel fashion, or is the compound processed less efficiently, as though sequentially? Are there conditions in which the relevant information contained in a compound stimulus is obtained as quickly and accurately as the information contained in either element when they are presented alone and others where such information is obtained less quickly and accurately? As we shall see, the answer to this question is revealed by manipulations of the stimulus arrangement and the instructions given the pigeon by the reinforcement contingencies.
