The rôle of kinesthesis in retention by rats.

Abstract

In the early work of Small (1) and Watson (2) the general theory was advanced that the most important sensory cues by which the animal learns to run the maze are derived from the kinesthetic sense. In attempting to prove this theory, Watson deprived rats of all their senses except the one just mentioned and the vestibular sense. Later work by Carr and Watson (3) in which they attempted to vary the length of the true pathways, keeping in so far as possible all the other factors constant, showed that differences in distance alone are sufficient to disturb the acquired patterns. Subsequent investigators, 1 including Yincent (4, 5, 6, 7), Carr (8, 9) and Stone and Weaver (10) have also demonstrated that rats deprived of their vibrassae, vision and olfaction are capable of learning, in spite of the fact that the deprivation of any one of the senses may temporarily hinder the acquisition of the maze habit.The general assumption underlying the function of kinesthesis in learning is that stimuli arise in some sort of temporal sequence from the activity of the muscles as the animal traverses the maze pattern. The further assumption which must be made is that during the process of learning this temporal sequence becomes fixed, regardless of the particular theory which is postulated to explain learning in general.That is we may assume that as long as the animal progresses in a straight line forward the temporal sequence of the kinesthetic sensation from the movement of the legs would be (a) stimulation from right fore leg and contra lateral hind leg; (&) stimulation arising from the other two legs. Theoretically this sequence will

The influence of work on behavior.

“…External cues must have been operating, since response-produced stimuli should have been greatly altered by the staggering gait of the post-operate rats. Dorcus and Gray (27) agreed with Lashley and McCarthy. They excised whole muscle groups in the hind limbs of rats, and found maze learning to be undisturbed.…”

The Normal Sensory Control of the Perfected Double-Alternation Spatialmaze Habit of the Albino Rat

“…(4) T h e median error score for the first 30 retraining trials of the normal control animals (Group N ) was 6.2, with a standard deviation of . 8. Five of the 16 animals in Group 0 and all of the animals in Group V+O made error scores for their first 30 retraining trials which were significantly larger than the median for Group N.…”

“…T h e median error score for the first 30 retraining trials of Group N was 6.2, with a standard deviation of . 8 N. This analysis leads to the conclusion that, with a few exceptions, the elimination of all constant exteroceptive stimulation (with the possible exception of certain visual stimulation, noted above) resulted in a significant disturbance of accuracy of maze performance.…”

“…I n general, the elimination or reduction of the possibility of receiving either visual, olfactory, auditory, cutaneous, or proprioceptive stimulation, alone, has not prevented animals from acquiring the maze habit, or from re-acquiring it if the habit was disturbed. This conclusion is based upon the work of Watson (24) (vision, audition, olfaction, and cutaneous sensitivity) ; Carr (2-4) and Lindley (17) (vision and olfaction) ; Lashley and Ball (15) (vision and proprioception) ; Liggett (16) (olfaction) ; Weaver and Stone (25), Hunter ( l l ) , and Dennis (6) (vision) ; and Dorcus and Gray (8) and Ingebritsen ( 14) (proprioception) . Walton (23) found that rats could master a maze in which the sole basis for correct choices was a difference in visual brightness.…”