Journal oj Experimental Psychology

1965, Vol. 70, No. 1, 13-17

EFFECT OF OVERTRAINING ON REVERSAL AND

EXTRADIMENSIONAL SHIFTS *
THOMAS J. TIGHE
Dartmouth College

32 rhesus monkeys were trained to criterion in a Wisconsin General Test

Apparatus to respond to 1 dimension of a 2-dimensional discrimination
task and then to respond either to the previously negative stimulus
(reversal shiftRS) or to the previously irrelevant dimension (extra-
dimensional shiftEDS), of the Ss were given the discrimination
shifts immediately upon reaching criterion in the original discrimination,
while the other j received 200 training trials beyond criterion before
undergoing the discrimination shifts. EDS was accomplished signifi-
cantly faster than RS by both the criterion and the overtrained Ss.
Overtraining had no effect.

Previous studies show that mature
humans learn a reversal shift (RS),
which involves a reversal of response
to a previously relevant dimension,
more rapidly than an extradimensional
shift (EDS), which requires response
to a previously irrelevant dimension
(e.g., Buss, 1953; Harrow & Fried-
man, 1958; Kendler & D'Amato,
1955). But the contrary is true for
young children (Kendler, Kendler, &
Wells, 1960) and for the infrahuman
organisms which have been tested
(rats, Kelleher, 1956; chickens, Brook-
shire, Warren, & Ball, 1961; infant
and mature rhesus monkeys, Tighe,
1964). However, the maturing child
has been found to perform such tasks
progressively more like the human
adult (Kendler & Kendler, 1959;
Kendler, Kendler, & Learnard, 1962).
Theoretical accounts of these age
and species differences have stressed
the role of mediating processes. Kend-
1 Kendler have noted that appropriate
This investigation was supported by
Public Health Service Research Grant MH
07813-01, from the National Institute of
Mental Health. The experiment was carried
out at the Cornell University primate lab-
oratory, which is supported in part by Grant
M4S16 from the National Institute of Mental
Health. The author would like to thank
Robert R. Zimmermann for the facilities and
assistance afforded.
13
ler and Kendler (1962) suggest that
as children mature they become more
likely to accomplish such problems
on the basis of cues which are added
to the stimuli of the task by mediating
responses and which become the
primary determiners of the discrimi-
native response. The mediational
sequence established in the initial
discrimination remains appropriate
in a subsequent RS whereas in an
EDS it must be discarded and a new
one formed. Consequently, an RS
will be relatively easy for a mediator.
The fact that young children and
lower species find it relatively difficult
to reverse is deduced from the assump-
tion that these 5s discriminate on the
basis of single-stage S-R associations
in the manner indicated by Spence
(1936). For such 5s the to-be-
abandoned habit has to undergo more
complete extinction in an RS than
in an EDS. However, Kendler and
response-produced stimulation may
be developed in lower organisms by
extended training (e.g., as presumably
occurs in discrimination-reversal learn-
ing sets). Other forms of mediation
theory which have been applied to
discrimination-shift behavior assume
that before 5s can learn which stimu-
14 THOMAS J. TIGHE
lus to approach and which to avoid
they must first acquire mediating
responses which function to select
out the relevant stimuli of the task.
This mediating process has been
conceptualized as the strengthening
of observing responses (Zeaman &
House, 1963) or the switching in of
analyzers to the relevant dimension
(Mackintosh, 1962). The more fully
such processes are developed by
training within a discrimination the
more likely it is that 5s will con-
tinue to respond to the relevant cues
after an RS and consequently the
faster will be the reversal learning.
Concurrently, it becomes less likely
that 5s will respond in a subsequent
EDS to the previously irrelevant but
now relevant cues.
It follows from the latter formula-
tions that infrahuman organisms will
be likely to learn an RS more rapidly
than an EDS following a high degree
of overtraining (OT) in the original
discrimination, or, at least, that OT
will facilitate RS and retard EDS.
According to single-stage S-R theory,
however, OT should not facilitate
RS. From the point of view of the
Kendlers' formulation, then, the im-
portant consideration in predicting
the effect of OT is whether or not
this condition would result in the
development of a cue-producing re-
sponse which would enable rapid
reversal. These issues are examined
in the present experiment which
studies the effect of extended training
upon the shift performance of mon-
keysa species which in view of its
relatively advanced position on the
evolutionary scale may be assumed to
rank high among infrahuman species
in the ability to develop and utilize
mediating processes in problem-solving
behavior.
METHOD
Subjects.The 5s were 32 rhesus monkeys
ranging in age from 3 mo. to 16 mo. from the
Cornell University Laboratory. The 5s had
prior discrimination training which was
balanced over the conditions of this experi-
ment. Each 5 received a daily ration of
monkey chow and a vitamin sandwich.
Apparatus.The animals were trained in
two Wisconsin General Test Apparatus which
were standard in their general structure. One,
however, was of smaller scale to accommodate
the younger 5s. Mounted on the stimulus
delivery trays were two sliding upright 3-in.
square stimulus holders which covered food
wells. The stimuli consisted of f-in. wide and
f-in. thick plastic strips glued to a 3-in. square
white plaque. The plastic strips varied in
color, being red or green, and were arranged
to form either a continuous 2 J-in. long vertical
line or an interrupted vertical line of the same
extent. Two such parallel lines separated by
5 in. were centered on each plaque. Thus,
on any one trial in original learning 5 had to
choose between the stimuli in one of the
following two pairs: (a) continuous red strips
vs. interrupted green strips, or (b) interrupted
red strips vs. continuous green strips.
Procedure.All 5s first learned a dis-
crimination with one of the following as the
positive stimulus: continuous strips (C),
interrupted strips (I), red strips (R), or green
strips (G). For example, if an 5 had C as the
positive stimulus he was reinforced for
choosing the continuous strips, regardless of
whether they were red or green. Upon reach-
ing criterion in the initial discrimination half
of the 5s (Criterion group) were immediately
given the discrimination shifts. Half of these
5s received a reversal shift (Group C-RS)
and the other half received an extradimen-
sional shift (Group C-EDS). For example, if
an 5 had C as the positive stimulus in the
initial discrimination he could then be given
either an RS to I positive or an EDS to R or
G positive. The remaining 5s (Group OT)
were similarly treated but only after having
received 200 additional training trials on the
initial discrimination during which criterion
performance had to be maintained. This
figure represents about 90% of the mean trials
required to complete the original learning.
An attempt was made to equate the major
treatment groups in speed of learning the
initial discrimination.
The general testing procedure followed the
standard method used with the Wisconsin
General Test Apparatus. The specific trial
procedure consisted of E slowly moving the
stimulus tray forward, pausing for 2 sec,
just outside 5's reach, and then moving the
stimuli closer to 5. The 5 pushed back one
of the two stimulus holders, revealing a raisin
on correct choices. The 5s received 25 non-
 OVERTRAINING AND REVERSAL SHIFTS 15

TABLE 1 TABLE 2
MEDIAN NUMBER OF ERRORS AND TRIALS ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF TRANSFORMED
TO CRITERION DURING SHIFTS TRIALS TO CRITERION IN
DISCRIMINATION SHIFTS
Relevant Dimension
Source df MS F
Group Continuous- Red-Green Type of shift (S) 1 3.396
Interrupted 8.47**
Overtraining (OT) 1 .410 1.02
Dimension (D) 1 3.307 8.26**
Errors Trials Errors Trials S XOT 1 .114
S XD 1 .001
C-RS 233.5 550.5 225.5 237.5 D XOT 1 .011
OT-RS 345.0 650.0 98.5 216.5 S X OT X D 1 .146
C-EDS 118.5 312.5 35.0 112.5 Within groups 23 .401
OT-EDS 99.5 262.5 55.5 162.5
**p <.01.
Note.Each subgroup contains four Ss.

correction trials per day in each phase of the
experiment, and were run to a criterion of 21
correct responses for each of 2 successive
days both during original learning and for the
postshift discrimination. Overtraining was
given on consecutive days until 8 days of
criterion performance had been achieved.
Throughout training the order and position
of stimuli followed an irregular sequence
which provided that the same stimulus pair
not appear more than twice in succession and
that a correct stimulus not appear more than
three times in succession on the same side.
During the postshift discriminations the ir-
relevant dimension was held constant in order
to minimize possible partial-reinforcement
effects for 5s undergoing the EDS. Each
stimulus dimension was used equally often as
the relevant dimension during original learn-
ing and the discrimination shifts. Each
discrimination was begun on the day following
completion of the preceding task.
RESULTS
The major treatment groups did
not differ in speed of learning the
initial discrimination (F < 1). All
but three of the 5s completed over-
training (OT) in 8 successive days.
These three animals (two in the RS
group and one in the EDS group)
each required 1 additional day. Dur-
ing OT the mean number of errors
per day was .82. The shift perform-
ance of the animals is summarized in
Table 1. Trial and error scores for the
discrimination shifts are presented in
terms of the dimension involved since
the I vs. C discrimination proved to
be significantly more difficult than
the R vs. G discrimination. Factorial
analyses of variance were applied to
trial and errors scores transformed
to natural logarithms. Table 2 pre-
sents the analysis for the trial meas-
ure. Analysis of the error measure,
which is not given here, provided
conclusions identical to those ob-
tained from the trial analysis, although
the p values for type of shift and for
dimension were <.001 and <.05,

TABLE 3
PERCENTAGE OF RESPONSES TO THE PREVIOUSLY POSITIVE STIMULUS
IN RS FOR THE CRITERION AND OVERTRAINED GROUPS

Days in Shift

I 2 3 4 S 6 7 8

Criterion 83.0 61.5 58.0 52.5 48.6 46.3 45.2 43.6

Overtrained 92.0 79.4 69.7 56.6 54.8 48.0 50.7 43.2

Note,The trends are the same for both the C-I and the R-G discriminations.
16 THOMAS J. TIGHE
respectively, for the error measure.
One animal in the OT-RS group had
to be removed during the shift phase
of the experiment due to illness, and
the cell mean was substituted for his
score. The mean number of errors
before the first correct response fol-
lowing reversal shift was 25.4 for the
overtrained group and 9.4 for the
criterion group (t = 1.4, p < .20,
two-tailed). Table 3 presents the
percentage of responses to the pre-
viously positive stimulus on successive
days in reversal shift for the criterion
and overtrained groups.
DISCUSSION
The finding that monkeys learn an
EDS more rapidly than an RS confirms
a previous study with primates which
employed different dimensions than those
used here (Tighe, 1964). In that experi-
ment, as in the present study, relative
ease of shift was not affected by differ-
ences in the difficulty of the discrimina-
tion involved. The OT condition of
the present experiment did not facilitate
reversal behavior or retard extradimen-
sional shift behavior regardless of which
dimension was relevant. In fact, the
measures of perseverative errors indicate
that OT had a retarding effect on reversal
performance. These results are in agree-
ment with a single-stage S-R theory of
discrimination learning. According to
this view OT will have no effect on the
relative ease of the two types of shift
since additional training should merely
result in proportionate increases in the
habit strengths involved in the original
discrimination. It also follows from this
view that reversal behavior will be
retarded by OT since the absolute
strength of the original habit will be
increased. However, the retarding effect
on RS may be relatively slight since
the strength of the original habit can be
expected to be near asymptote with
criterion learning. The present findings,
then, are consistent with the assumption
that 5s discriminated on the basis of
single-stage associations throughout the
experiment.
These results do not agree with
Mackintosh's (1962) study with rats
which showed that OT in a brightness
discrimination facilitated a subsequent
reversal shift but retarded the learning
of a horizontal-vertical discrimination.
Although rats trained only to criterion
learned the brightness reversal more
slowly than the horizontal-vertical dis-
crimination, these relations were reversed
with OT. However, these data are not
pertinent to the issue of whether OT
will enable infrahuman organisms to
learn an RS more rapidly than an EDS
since the RS and EDS in this design
involved different dimensions and thus
preclude direct comparison of the relative
ease of the two types of shift. But
the question does arise as to why Mack-
intosh obtained an effect of OT while
the present study did not. Considera-
tion of procedural differences give rise
to a hypothesis which might account for
the discrepant results. First, in the
reversal condition Mackintosh used a
simultaneous brightness discrimination
the only situation in which OT has
generally been found to facilitate reversal
learning in animals. Secondly, a single
dimension was present during OT in
the Mackintosh study, while an addi-
tional varying irrelevant dimension was
present during OT in the present experi-
ment. It is possible, then, that these
factors may have especially favored the
development and attachment of mediat-
ing responses during OT. In other
words, the perceptual properties of the
task may play a critical role in determin-
ing the effectiveness of OT. This hypoth-
esis receives some support from Tighe's
(1963) experiment which employed shift
procedures identical to those of the
present study and found that 5- and 6-
yr.-old children would accomplish an
RS more rapidly than an EDS if they
were first given nonreinforced pretraining
designed to emphasize the independence
and the dimensional nature of the proper-
ties of the task stimuli. Control 5s
in this experiment showed no difference
in the relative ease of the two types of
 OVERTRAINING AND REVERSAL SHIFTS
shift, a finding which confirms previous
studies (Kendler & Kendler, 1959;
Kendler et al, 1962).
The results of the present experiment,
then, are consistent with the assumption
that there is a fundamental difference
in the manner in which human and
infrahuman organisms accomplish dis-
crimination shift problems, and indicate
that this difference is not readily elimi-
nated by extended training within the
problem. But in order to resolve the
question of whether or not these state-
ments are generally applicable to the
behavior of infrahuman species in such
tasks, further evidence is required con-
cerning the influence of variations in
the testing procedures employed, par-
ticularly in regard to variations in the
perceptual structuring of the task.
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