The effect of discrimination training on pattern equivalence in monkeys with inferotemporal and lateral striate lesions

Abstract

Monkeys with inferotemporal (IT) lesions, monkeys with lateral striate (LS) lesions and unoperated controls discriminated between two patterns and were tested for pattern equivalence in three experiments. The IT monkeys appeared to utilize salient cues more than control animals did and failed to identify specific pattern features (exps. 1 and 2). When the salient cues were removed (exp. 3) the IT animals gave evidence of normally identifying configurational cues. While two LS monkeys showed deficits like those of the IT monkeys (exps. 1 and 2), they apparently did not identify configurational features (exp. 3). The findings suggest that IT lesions do not impair the capacity to identify visual features, but disrupt stimulus sampling or attentional processes.