Reversal learning in rats (Rattus norvegicus) and pigeons (Columba livia): Qualitative differences in behavioral flexibility.

Rayburn-Reeves, Rebecca; Stagner, Jessica P.; Kirk, Chelsea R.; Zentall, Thomas R.

doi:10.1037/a0026311

Cited by 65 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Mackintosh, Brendan, & Valerie, 1968;Mackintosh & Little, 1969) or to local feedback (e.g. Rayburn-Reeves, Stagner, Kirk, & Zentall, 2013) is an important factor in completing the reversal learning task more efficiently. Appropriately directed attention allows animals to achieve efficiency by making associations between the relevant cues and the rewards, but this is more likely to happen if the experimental design is ecologically relevant to the study species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serial reversal learning in gray squirrels: Learning efficiency as a function of learning and change of tactics.

Chow¹,

Leaver²,

Wang³

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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Learning allows individuals to adapt their behaviours flexibly to changing environment. When the same change recurs repeatedly, acquiring relevant tactics may increase learning efficiency under recurring change. We examined this relationship, along with the effects of proactive interference and other interference information, in a serial spatial reversal task with five grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Squirrels completed an acquisition and 11 reversal phases with a poke box in which two out of four possible reward locations were baited diagonally in a square array. In this situation, an efficient tactic is to locate the diagonally related locations consecutively (integrative search tactic) instead of searching rewards in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction (sequential search tactic). All the squirrels formed a learning set acquiring successive reversals in fewer trials. Although four individuals gradually employed more integrative tactics in locating the rewards both within and between phases, sequential tactics were used in the first trial of each phase. This suggests the integrative tactic did not depend on an association between the rewarded locations but was learned as a spatial pattern and/or by use of extra-apparatus cues to locate individual reward. Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) models showed that learning efficiency increased with experience and tactic change. Although tactic change partially mediated the effect of learning on learning efficiency, learning retained an independent contribution to improved efficiency. Squirrels that used integrative tactics more made less total errors than squirrels that used less; suggesting learning a task relevant tactic using spatial cues can provide direct benefits in maximising rewards and minimising time costs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serial reversal learning in gray squirrels: Learning efficiency as a function of learning and change of tactics.

Chow¹,

Leaver²,

Wang³

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cogniti

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show abstract

“…In terms of the current experiments, rats and pigeons were not much different from one another in the Switch group. Rats have been proposed to be much faster to learn to switch than pigeons (Rayburn-Reeves et al, 2013), so it was thought that perhaps rats would perform better than pigeons on the MHD task. This hypothesis was not supported by the current results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, nonhuman subjects provide a way to test different aspects of the MHD free of these influences. Recently, evidence has been found that rats show more behavioral flexibility and will alternate and switch choices more readily than pigeons (Rayburn-Reeves et al, 2013). This result was found after giving rats experience with a spatial midsession reversal-learning task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Unlike pigeons, rats showed very little perseveration associated with the previously correctly lever and also, little anticipation of the reversal point in that there were few choices to the second lever before feedback was given that it was correct. Rats performed very well on this reversal learning task in which switching was a crucial part of optimal performance, whereas pigeons previously have shown difficulty switching (Cook and Rosen, 2010;Rayburn-Reeves et al, 2013;Stagner et al, 2013a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

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Further investigation of the Monty Hall Dilemma in pigeons and rats

Stagner

Zentall

2015

Behavioural Processes

Self Cite

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“…Thomas Zentall and his colleagues have investigated a striking example of inefficient choice behavior in nonhuman animals (e.g., Laude, Stagner, Rayburn-Reeves, & Zentall, 2014;Rayburn-Reeves, Molet, & Zentall, 2011;Rayburn-Reeves, Stagner, Kirk, & Zentall, 2013;Stagner, Michler, Rayburn-Reeves, Laude, & Zentall, 2013; see also Cook & Rosen, 2010;Daniel, Cook, & Katz, 2015;McMillan & Roberts, 2015;McMillan, Sturdy, & Spetch, 2015). An early article in this experimental series presents several experiments that are illustrative of the basic effect.…”

Section: Behavioral Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Midsession shifts in reward probability and the control of behavioral variability

Stahlman

Leising

2016

Learn Behav

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Extensive research has shown that the variability of organismal behavior is great when contingent reinforcement is delayed, small, or improbable. This research has generally employed stable response-reinforcer relationships, and therefore is limited in its explanatory scope with respect to a dynamic environment. We conducted two experiments to investigate whether pigeons' conditioned pecking behavior shows anticipatory or perseverative patterns of behavioral variability when the reinforcement probability reliably changes within experimental sessions. In Experiment 1, three pigeons received alternating sessions in which the reinforcement probability (35% or 4.2%) was shifted at the midpoint of each session in the presence of the same discrete cue. Experiment 2 featured a similar design, but with the inclusion of a discrete visual cue that changed at the session midpoint, and thus unambiguously indicated reinforcement probability. Local reinforcement rates only reliably controlled response variability when a discrete visual cue was available. Without this, pigeons did not discriminate between trial types in the first halves of sessions, and showed evidence of perseveration of response variability following a within-session shift. Critically, this is the first experimental demonstration that the relationship between reinforcement probability and behavioral variability is moderated by another factor (i.e., trial position within a session). This study thus expands our understanding of the control of behavioral variability as a function of experiential factors.

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Reversal learning in rats (Rattus norvegicus) and pigeons (Columba livia): Qualitative differences in behavioral flexibility.

Cited by 65 publications

References 38 publications

Serial reversal learning in gray squirrels: Learning efficiency as a function of learning and change of tactics.

Serial reversal learning in gray squirrels: Learning efficiency as a function of learning and change of tactics.

Further investigation of the Monty Hall Dilemma in pigeons and rats

Midsession shifts in reward probability and the control of behavioral variability

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