Functional Cues for Position Learning Effects in Animals

Abstract

Using transfer methodology, several possible factors that could have affected the expression of serial position learning were examined with runway-trained rats. A 3-trial series (8NP)-for which 8 and P refer to series trials when sucrose (8) and plain (P) Noyes pellets were used as a reward , and N refers to a trial without reward-was the basis for training in the first 2 and final experiments. Transfer tests in Experiment 1 altered reward memories , the time between trials in the series , or both . Tests in Experiment 2 altered the number of trials in the series while maintaining essential memory relationships . Experiment 3 involved a 4-trial series (P8NP or 8PN8) and transfer tests with changed memory (NNNN) . In Experiment 4, training on an RNR series, where R could be either 8 or P in either large or small magnitudes, was followed by a transfer test to NNN and a final test in which the rats were prevented from running on the 1 st or 2nd series trial. The findings support a view that position and memory learning are compatible sources of serial effects, and they suggest temporal and response cues may not be crucial in position effects.The empirical study of learning in people began with Ebbinghaus (1885), whose topic was the learning of things that occur in a fixed order. Reviewing the literature, Crowder and Greene (2000) concluded that serial learning , and the understanding of psychological processes associated with it, has been of central importance in the general study of learning and cognition ever since Ebbinghaus. As is well known , Ebbinghaus' theory of serial learning emphasized associations among the items in an ordered list, and in various forms, this theory governed thinking in the field for eight decades. Although the possibility that a series may be learned by associations among the pOSitions items occupy in the

Concurrent cognitive processes in rat serial pattern learning: Item memory, serial position, and pattern structure

“…This is an interesting finding considering other literature that suggests rats do use serial position as a cue (Burns, Dunkman, Jr., & Detloff, 1999; Burns, Johnson, Harris, Kinney, & Wright, 2004; Burns, Kinney, & Criddle, 2000). Burns et al (2000) trained two groups of rats on 3-trial series in which the first two trials consisted of rewards while the third trial was not rewarded.…”

Knowledge of the ordinal position of list items in pigeons.

“…First, in the present study, no differential feedback, exteroceptive or proprioceptive, followed a response. In contrast, previous studies have used procedures in which list items are associated with different quantities of food and/or different spatial locations (e.g., Burns, Johnson, Harris, Kinney, & Wright, 2004; Olthof & Santi, 2007). When differential outcomes follow responses, it is essentially impossible to determine if the functional stimulus for a response is the outcome associated with an item or the item's ordinal position.…”

An Attempt at Blocking of Position Learning by Training with Reward-Memory Associations

“…If their rats had learned position in the PSN series, approach would have been slow on the S trial of the PPSN transfer series because that position was never rewarded in training. Using similar training methods, however, with initial training on an SNP series, Burns et al (2004) found slow approach on the second trials of NP and SSNP transfer series. One possibility entertained by Capaldi et al (1997) was that position learning requires extensive training, but reward-memory learning occurs rapidly.…”

“…The evidence so far suggests that both kinds of learning may occur and probably do occur, even if one overshadows the other. They are not mutually exclusive (Burns, Johnson, Harris, Kinney, & Wright, 2004). The blocking procedure should foster a better understanding of how one type of association moderates the other.…”