TRACE AUTOSHAPING: ACQUISITION, MAINTENANCE, AND PATH DEPENDENCE AT LONG TRACE INTERVALS

The pigeon's tendency to acquire and maintain signal‐directed key pecking under a trace conditioning procedure was parametrically examined. In Experiment 1, the percentage of CS trials with a key peck response was a decreasing function of the trace interval for separate groups of pigeons. The majority of subjects acquired signal‐directed key pecking with trace intervals as long as 36 sec. In Experiment 2, differential maintenance of key pecking occurred across trace intervals in a within‐subject procedure. Maintenance of key pecking at 36‐ and 60‐sec trace intervals was path dependent in that responding depended on the subject's performance under the preceding trace interval.