Brightness and direction as cues for spontaneous alternation behavior

The value of spontaneous alternation behavior (SAB) as a test of retention in pharmacological investigations of memory

“…While it is generally accepted that extra-maze directionality cues predominantly guide SAB, odor trail cues are also significant in at least two-trial SAB [39], a finding that questions the assumption that a memory trace of the trial 1 experience is necessary for SAB to occur unless, of course, the odor trail is completely eliminated before trial 2. And even though Douglas concluded from the results of his well-conceived set of experiments that intra-maze visual cues play no part in SAB [39], there is subsequent evidence supporting their involvement to some extent, when they are sufficiently salient [40][41][42]. The nature of the continuous SAB procedure obviously makes intra-maze cues more difficult to manipulate during an individual test trial.…”

Delayed alternation in rats with position preferences

“…In further examination of the hypothesis, position preference differences could be obtained by appropriate selection of the strains used (see Douglas & Isaacson, 1965), with the confounding this would entail, or preferences could be artificially created by using arms of different brightness (see Eisenberg, Myers, Sanders, & Shanab, 1970;O'Connell, 1964;Pate & DeLoache, 1970). Preferences could also be established by variations in amount of reward training.…”

The Transfer Index as a Precursor of Nonhuman Language Research and Emergents.

“…Early in my career, I investigated spontaneous alternation behavior in rats (Pate & DeLoache, 1970) and in children (Pate & Bell, 1971), but behaviors in the two species were not compared. Although no learning was involved, the importance of the situation by organism interaction was important.…”