The effect of early perceptual learning on the behavioral organization of adult rats.

Abstract

This study was concerned with determining the effects of visual and proprioceptive experiences, during the early life of rats, on their emotional, perceptual, and problem-solving behavior at adulthood. The problem arose out of the work of Hebb and his associates (3,4,5,6). Hebb has suggested that the organization of adult behavior is largely determined by the quality of infant experience and learning (4). This early learning is so important because it produces permanent changes in the structure of the central nervous system, primarily the cerebral cortex (5).The brief history of research in this area was summarized by Hymovitch (6), who found that rats reared in a complex free environment were significantly superior in problem-solving ability, as measured by the Hebb-Williams test, to those reared in a restricted environment. The complex free environment was a large box containing a number of "playthings" (small metal and wooden structures), which enabled the rats to have a variety of experience. He also placed in this box a number of small mesh cages in which smaller groups of rats were reared. The mesh cages were periodically moved from place to place both inside and outside the box. The problemsolving behavior of these rats, as adults, was as good as that of the animals reared in the entire box. In a similar study Forgays and Forgays (3) reported, among other facts, that the rats reared in mesh cages were inferior, in problem-solving behavior, to animals reared in a large, complex free environment. Although these two sets of results are somewhat inconsistent, both authors concluded that early perceptual experience or learning seemed to play a dominant role in determining 1 This paper is based on a dissertation, supervised by Professor R. B. MacLeod, which was submitted to Cornell University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and is on file in the library of Cornel] University. The research was partly financed by scholarships from the Canadian National Research Council.

Effects of human contact and vagal regulation on pain reactivity and visual attention in newborns

“…Rat pups exposed to visual stimuli in early life showed a better performance on an open field test, in a maze test, in a visual discrimination and generalization test, and in a spatial problem test. These pups also demonstrated more exploratory behavior in a new environment (Forgus, 1954;Hymovitch, 1952). Similarly, human infants who were visually stimulated by their parents at 9 months showed better visual habituation at 12 months (Riksen-Walraven, 1978).…”

The effect of early experience on water maze spatial learning and memory in rats

“…In fact, the most consistent (although not universal) behavioral finding has been the superior performance of environmentally enriched rodents in land-based, complex spatial maze tasks (Juraska, 1990). While there has been controversy regarding this result as to the relative influence of various aspects of the environmental enrichment or complex rearing, visual pattern experience itself (Forgus, 1954) has been shown to influence maze performance. The second study allows us to investigate both visually inexperienced DR as well as normal LR and complex reared animals under identical conditions in the water maze.…”

The effect of early visual experience on spatial maze learning in rats

“…Two major (and related) points of controversy regarding this result involve the relative influence of various aspects of the environmental enrichment and the relative importance of particular abilities in producing superior performance o n such m a l e tasks (e.g., Greenough, Wood, & Madden, 1972). Environmental variables such as social conditions (Myers & Fox, 1963), motor experience ( R a v i n a & Hershberger, 1966), and visual pattern experience (Forgus, 1954) have each been shown to have influence on male performance. Although attempts to further identify the underlying cause(s) have not been very systematic and have yielded somewhat equivocal results (e.g.…”