Maintenance of Discriminative Function Across Successive and Simultaneous Procedures: An Experimental Demonstration

Abstract Although simultaneous and successive discrimination procedures are both effective in establishing stimulus control, their direct comparison often suffers from procedural asymmetries. In this study, 10 undergraduate students were trained in simple discrimination tasks using either a simultaneous or successive format and tested for the maintenance of discriminative function by switching procedures. Half of the participants started with one procedure and the other half with the alternative. Discriminative performance was transferred nearly perfectly across procedures, with high accuracy in the test phase, regardless of the training format. However, simultaneous training required fewer blocks to reach criterion, and response latencies were significantly shorter during an interaction between procedure and phase, with simultaneous-to-successive transfer associated with longer latencies during testing. A modified cumulative arousal model fit the successive group data well but underestimated learning in the simultaneous group. These findings highlight procedural features that influence acquisition rates and response latencies and may help advance research in discrimination learning.