Bilateral transfer of the conditioned response in the human subject.

The relationship between the conditioned response and conventional learning experiments.

“…In all of these experiments a response to a conditioned stimulus was obtained from a bodily member which had never yielded an unconditioned response in the presence of the conditioned stimulus. When the stimulating devices for the unconditioned response were moved to the other hand (54) or to the other leg (53,140), this hand or leg responded to the conditioned stimulus before the unconditioned stimulus was applied. Bekhterev's dog lifted the other foot when the one which usually responded was tied down.…”

Gibson's Theory of Perceptual Learning

“…Humans also show a variety of strategies, and they can transfer means that work in one context to another. In her first published paper (Gibson et al, 1932), Gibson found that adults who were conditioned to withdraw the index finger of one hand to avoid a shock transferred the means of avoidance to the index finger on the other hand when told to place that finger on the electrode.…”

“…She published her first paper on perceptual learning in 1932 (Gibson et al, 1932) and her last book in 2002 (Gibson, 2002). There is a clear thread from beginning to end, but she was not dogmatic in her ideas; her theories were always informed by data, and data collection was often inspired by real life and serendipity.…”

Controlling the temporal structure of limb movements

“…It turns out that when experimenters have bothered to test the hypothesis that isolable reflexes exist as components of behavioral responses the results have always been negative. For example, a conditioned finger-withdrawal reflex to an electric shock will transfer to the opposite side of the body (where no conditioning occurred), indicating that conditioned responses are not lateralized in the nervous system (Gibson, Jack & Raffel 1932). The knee-jerk reflex can also be made to transfer.…”