Differential outcome effect in the horse.
Abstract: Three horses were trained with a discrimination task in which the color (blue or yellow) of a center panel signaled the correct (left or right) response (lever press). Reinforcing outcomes for the two correct color-position combinations (blue-left and yellow-right) were varied across phases. Discrimination performance was better when the combinations were differentially reinforced by two types of food (chopped carrot pieces and a solid food pellet) than when the combinations were randomly reinforced by these outcomes or when there was a common reinforcer for each of the correct combinations. However, the discrimination performance established by the differential outcome procedure was still 80% to 90% correct, and an analysis of two-trial sequences revealed that the stimulus color of the preceding trial interfered with discrimination performance on a given trial. Our demonstration of the differential outcome effect in the horse and its further analysis might contribute to more efficient control of equine behavior in the laboratory as well as in horse sports.
Publication Date: 2000-10-12 PubMed ID: 11029025PubMed Central: PMC1284794DOI: 10.1901/jeab.2000.74-245Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary
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This study investigates how varying types of food rewards affect a horse’s ability to perform a discrimination task based on color cues, finding that different rewards for correct responses improve overall performance.
Training Method and Task
- Three horses were trained to perform a specific discrimination task. In this task, they had to associate the colors blue and yellow on a center panel with a correct response in either the left or right direction by pressing a lever.
- The goal of the training was to have the horses understand that blue correlates with a left response, whereas yellow correlates with a right response.
Varying Reinforcements
- The researchers then varied the type of reward (reinforcement) the horses received for performing the discrimination task correctly, testing the effect of these changes on the horses’ performance.
- In one phase, the horses were given two types of food rewards that were distinct and consistent based on their correct response—the chopped carrot pieces for blue-left and a solid food pellet for yellow-right.
- In another phase, these food rewards were randomly distributed between the correct responses, and in a third phase, there was only one type of food reward for either correct response.
Impact of Differential Reinforcement on Performance
- The study found that the horses’ discrimination performance was significantly better when the food rewards were different based on the correct response.
- While the performance was lower when the rewards were randomly distributed or common for both responses, the discrimination capability was still relatively high, being between 80% to 90% correct.
Further Analysis and Implications
- The researchers also analyzed sequences of two trials and found that the color stimulus from the previous trial interfered with the performance on the current trial.
- This discovery of the “differential outcome effect” in horses, where distinct, consistent rewards for correct responses improve task performance, could be crucial for creating more efficient training techniques.
- This has potential implications both for controlling horse behavior in scientific research and in professional horse sports for improving performance.
Cite This Article
APA
Miyashita Y, Nakajima S, Imada H.
(2000).
Differential outcome effect in the horse.
J Exp Anal Behav, 74(2), 245-253.
https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab.2000.74-245 Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan.
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Behavior, Animal
- Color Perception / physiology
- Conditioning, Psychological / physiology
- Discrimination Learning / physiology
- Horses
- Reinforcement Schedule
- Reinforcement, Psychology
References
This article includes 13 references
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Citations
This article has been cited 7 times.- Hermer E, Murphy B, Chaine AS, Morand-Ferron J. Great tits who remember more accurately have difficulty forgetting, but variation is not driven by environmental harshness. Sci Rep 2021 May 12;11(1):10083.
- White KG, Sargisson RJ. A delay-specific differential outcomes effect in delayed matching to sample. Learn Behav 2015 Sep;43(3):217-27.
- Brown GS, White KG. Remembering: the role of extraneous reinforcement. Learn Behav 2005 Aug;33(3):309-23.
- Urcuioli PJ. Behavioral and associative effects of differential outcomes in discrimination learning. Learn Behav 2005 Feb;33(1):1-21.
- Brown GS, White KG. On the effects of signaling reinforcer probability and magnitude in delayed matching to sample. J Exp Anal Behav 2005 Mar;83(2):119-28.
- Overmier JB, Linwick D. Conditional choice-unique outcomes establish expectancies that mediate choice behavior. Integr Physiol Behav Sci 2001 Jul-Sep;36(3):173-81.
- Ricci-Bonot C, Brosche K, Baragli P, Nicol C. A systematic review on the effect of individual characteristics and management practices on equine cognition. Anim Cogn 2025 Nov 26;28(1):96.
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