Terrace, H. S., Chen, S., & Jaswal, V. (1996). Recall of three-item sequences by pigeons. Animal Learning and Behavior (1996), 24, 768-786.
Abstract
Eight male pigeons were trained to recall an arbitrary sequence on a delayed matching-to-successive-samples (DMSSs) task. Sample items were presented successively and then displayed simultaneously. Ss were required to respond to items in the order in which they appeared. In Exp 1, Ss responded correctly on 75% of the trials on a 2-item DMSSs task but at a chance level of accuracy on a 3-item task. In Exp 2, Ss who learned to produce a 3-item sequence prior to DMSSs training mastered a 3-item DMSSs task at a 75% level of accuracy. Control Ss, trained initially with the same items on nonserial tasks, performed as poorly on a 3-item DMSSs task as the naive Ss of Exp 1. It was hypothesized that Ss that first learned to produce a 3-item list were able to recall 3-item samples in DMSSs because they had learned to represent 3-item sequences.