Visual Discriminations and Set-Shifting

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Summary

Presents pairs of visual stimuli, each typically composed of two visual dimensions (e.g. dimensions "blue shapes" and "white lines" may be combined to give a stimulus made up of a particular blue shape with a particular white line over it). In each trial, one stimulus is correct and one stimulus is incorrect - and one dimension is relevant and another is not. Allows the reversal of individual stimuli, or of dimensions, thus allowing assessment of attentional set (to dimensions).

About the tasks

This task allows you to give visual discrimination tasks of the following kinds:

•	simple discrimination (and reversal)

•	compound discrimination (and reversal)

•	intradimensional set shift (and reversal)

•	extradimensional set shift (and reversal)

To learn what these mean, see About set-shifting.

Because there are at least two ways of manufacturing compound stimuli for use in this task, there are two "styles" in which you can run this task. They are:

•	Predefined stimuli style - in which you, the experimenter, create the compound stimuli yourself;

•	Superimposed stimuli style - in which you specify simple stimuli and the program superimposes them to create compound stimuli.

Choose one of these, and configure its parameters.

Tip: The "standard" shapes/lines discrimination typically used in monkey testing uses the Superimposed stimuli style.