?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=The+Geometry+of+Stimulus+Control&rft.creator=Ghirlanda%2C+Stefano&rft.creator=Enquist%2C+Magnus&rft.subject=Behavioral+Neuroscience&rft.subject=Animal+Behavior&rft.subject=Animal+Cognition&rft.subject=Ethology&rft.subject=Theoretical+Biology&rft.subject=Computational+Neuroscience&rft.subject=Neural+Nets&rft.description=Many+studies%2C+both+in+ethology+and+comparative+psychology%2C+have+shown+that+animals+react+to+modifications+of+familiar+stimuli.+This+phenomenon+is+often+referred+to+as+generalisation.+Most+modifications+lead+to+a+decrease+in+responding%2C+but+to+certain+new+stimuli+an+increase+in+responding+is+observed.+This+holds+for+both+innate+and+learned+behaviour.+Here+we+propose+a+heuristic+approach+to+stimulus+control%2C+or+stimulus+selection%2C+with+the+aim+of+explaining+these+phenomena.+The+model+has+two+key+elements.+First%2C+we+choose+the+receptor+level+as+the+fundamental+stimulus+space.+Each+stimulus+is+represented+as+the+pattern+of+activation+it+induces+in+sense+organs.+Second%2C+in+this+space+we+introduce+a+simple+measure+of+%60similarity'+between+stimuli+by+calculating+how+activation+patterns+overlap.+The+main+advantage+we+recognise+in+this+approach+is+that+the+generalisation+of+acquired+responses+emerges+from+a+few+simple+principles+which+are+grounded+in+the+recognition+of+how+animals+actually+perceive+stimuli.+Many+traditional+problems+that+face+theories+of+stimulus+control+(e.g.+the+Spence-Hull+theory+of+gradient+interaction+or+ethological+theories+of+stimulus+summation)+do+not+arise+in+the+present+framework.+These+problems+include+the+amount+of+generalisation+along+different+dimensions%2C+peak-shift+phenomena+(with+respect+to+both+positive+and+negative+shifts)%2C+intensity+generalisation%2C+and+generalisation+after+conditioning+on+two+positive+stimuli&rft.date=1999-10&rft.type=Journal+(Paginated)&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F184%2F1%2Fgeometry_public.html&rft.format=application%2Fpostscript&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F184%2F3%2Fgeometry_public.ps&rft.identifier=++Ghirlanda%2C+Stefano+and+Enquist%2C+Magnus++(1999)+The+Geometry+of+Stimulus+Control.++%5BJournal+(Paginated)%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F184%2F