Effects of sample duration on sensitivity to reinforcement and the allocation of observing responses

• Grant number: 24/07401-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: July 31, 2024
• End date: November 06, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Gerson Aparecido Yukio Tomanari
• Grantee: João Lucas Bernardy Cardoso
• Supervisor: Timothy A. Shahan
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Utah State University (USU), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/07516-4 - Effects of reinforcement schedules on observing responses and stimuli over selectivity, BP.PD

Abstract

Within behavior Psychology, attention is usually studied as an operant observing response maintained by producing relevant stimuli. The plausibility of this interpretation is sustained by the data's adherence to the matching law, which appears to be a suitable framework for the study of divided attention, as shown by experimental results with pigeons as subjects and a delayed matching-to-sample task. However, these same results reveal a dependency between sample stimulus duration and accuracy, which is interpreted in terms of differential attention towards elements of the stimulus. Our goal is to put this interpretation to the test with human participants, manipulating the sample stimulus duration while measuring eye movements through eye-tracking technology. Considering the relevance of the work done in that field by the supervisor abroad and the similarities between laboratories, we propose a work plan to run an experiment that fits the scope of the research internship abroad programs, establishing an international collaboration between research groups.