Running speed and intermediate brightness discrimination in the fresh water turtle (chrysemys).

Spigel, Irwin M.

doi:10.1037/h0045892

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Efficiency of learning was attributed to (1) the angle separating the discriminanda, (2) intertrial substrate temperature, and (3) visual attentional characteristics of the apparatus. In addition, orienting responses (VTE) varied in expected directions according to speed of learning and difficulty of maze choice points.Although black-gray-white discrimination in the turtle has been demonstrated (Casteel, 1911;Kuroda, 1933;Kirk & Bitterman, 1963;Spigel, 1963;Wise & Gallagher, 1964), it has been difficult to generalize these findings to all reptiles. The results reported for lizards on a black-white problem have been puzzling and inconclusive.…”

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confidence: 98%

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Black-white discrimination and orienting behavior in the desert iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis)

Garzanit

Richardson

1974

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Six desert iguanas (Dipsosaurus dorsalis) were trained on a black-white discrimination problem using a modified Lashley maze I. The results, in terms of number of trials to criterion, compared favorably to those reported for turtles on the same brightness difference. Efficiency of learning was attributed to (1) the angle separating the discriminanda, (2) intertrial substrate temperature, and (3) visual attentional characteristics of the apparatus. In addition, orienting responses (VTE) varied in expected directions according to speed of learning and difficulty of maze choice points.Although black-gray-white discrimination in the turtle has been demonstrated (Casteel, 1911;Kuroda, 1933;Kirk & Bitterman, 1963;Spigel, 1963;Wise & Gallagher, 1964), it has been difficult to generalize these findings to all reptiles. The results reported for lizards on a black-white problem have been puzzling and inconclusive. In 1965, Vance, Richardson, and Goodrich, using the collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) on a 30-deg-angle Y maze with shock for incorrect choice and animals at room temperature (25°C), established black-white discrimination only after 350 trials. These results compared very unfavorably in terms' of number of trials required by turtles to acquire this discrimination. Alkov and Crawford (1966) demonstrated black-white discrimination in the lizardIguana iguana run at a room temperature of 22°C but gave these animals only 30 trials, since the study involved successive reversal problems. Thus, it is not clear to us how many trials would be necessary for these animals to reach adequate criterion levels. In 1970, Richardson, Garzanit, and Albano, using the desert iguana and the same (Vance, Richardson, & Goodrich, 1965) 30-deg-angle Y maze without shock, failed entirely to establish a black-white discrimination after 425 trials. The present study attempts to clarify the question of such discrimination capability in the lizard. In addition, as in all our work, the orienting responses (VTE) which accompany discrimination learning in lizards and other vertebrates were closely observed. We, like Tolman (1948) and Bruner, Matter, and Papanek (1955), regard this choice point behavior as an index of selective attention to maximize utilization of cues. Such an assumption seems well supported by the findings that VTE always occurs at choice points in a maze, decreases as learning progresses, and increases with increment in problem difficulty (Tolman, 1938; Tolman & Ritchie, 1948;Goss & Wischner, 1956;Richardson, 1959;julian & Richardson, 1968;Richardson & Graf, 1970;Richardson, Garzanit, & Albano, 1970;Mortel, Richardson, Amber, & Peterson, 1971). It is also true that there is greater frequency of VTE at more difficult choice points (Julian & Richardson, 1968) and that slower learners and brain damaged animals exhibit fewer of these orienting responses (Tolman, 1948;Richardson, 1959;Mortel, Richardson, Amber, & Peterson, 1971). METHOD SubjectsThe Ss were six desert iguana tDipsosaurus dorsalis) collected from the Palm Spri...

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confidence: 98%

“…Although black-gray-white discrimination in the turtle has been demonstrated (Casteel, 1911;Kuroda, 1933;Kirk & Bitterman, 1963;Spigel, 1963;Wise & Gallagher, 1964), it has been difficult to generalize these findings to all reptiles. The results reported for lizards on a black-white problem have been puzzling and inconclusive.…”

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confidence: 98%

Black-white discrimination and orienting behavior in the desert iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis)

Garzanit

Richardson

1974

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…Behaving turtles have previously been conditioned using a variety of classical and instrumental training paradigms (Andrews, 1915;Poliakov, 1930;Boycott and Guillery, 1962;Spigel, 1963;Pert and Bitterman, 1969;Graf and Tighe, 1971;Manton et al, 1972). A classically conditioned head withdrawal response to a tone was reported (Poliakov, 1930).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Using a more complex discrimination paradigm, Andrews (1915) conditioned turtles to withdraw from a feeding station at the sound of a whistle and to approach at the sound of a bell. Brightness and olfactory discrimination learning has also been achieved (Boycott and Guillery, 1962;Spigel, 1963).…”

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In vitro classical conditioning of abducens nerve discharge in turtles

1995

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In vitro classical conditioning of abducens nerve activity was performed using an isolated turtle brainstem-cerebellum preparation by direct stimulation of the cranial nerves. Using a delayed training procedure, the in vitro preparation was presented with paired stimuli consisting of a 1 sec train stimulus applied to the auditory nerve (CS), which immediately preceded a single shock US applied to the trigeminal nerve. Conditioned and unconditioned responses were recorded in the ipsilateral abducens nerve. Acquisition exhibited a positive slope of conditioned responding in 60% of the preparations. Application of unpaired stimuli consisting of CS-alone, alternate CS and US, or backward conditioning failed to result in conditioning, or resulted in extinction of CRs. Latencies of CR onset were timed such that they occurred midway through the CS. Activity-dependent uptake of the dye sulforhodamine was used to examine the spatial distribution of neurons labeled during conditioning. These data showed label in the cerebellum and red nucleus during conditioning whereas these regions failed to label during unconditioned responses. Furthermore, the principal abducens nucleus labeled heavily during conditioning. These findings suggest the feasibility of examining classical conditioning in a vertebrate in vitro brainstem-cerebellum preparation. It is postulated that the abducens nerve CR represents a behavioral correlate of a blink- related eye movement. Multiple sites of conditioning are hypothesized, including the cerebellorubral circuitry and brainstem pathways that activate the principal abducens nucleus.

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“…The latter has been observed in fish predatory behaviour (De Santi, 2001) and in their turning behaviour in a T-maze (Facchin et al 1999). Behavioural lateralisation has been found in reptilian detour behaviour (Csermely et al 2010), escape behaviour (Bonati et al 2010), predatory behaviour (Bonati et al 2008), righting behaviour (Stancher et al 2006), responses to mirrors (Sovrano et al 2017), and in brightness discrimination tasks requiring movement (Spigel 1963).…”

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confidence: 93%

Tortoises develop and overcome position biases in a reversal learning task

Bridgeman

Tattersall

2019

Anim Cogn

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The capability of animals to alter their behaviour in response to novel or familiar stimuli, or behavioural flexibility, is strongly associated with their ability to learn in novel environments.Reptiles are capable of learning complex tasks and offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between visual proficiency and behavioural flexibility. The focus of this study was to investigate the behavioural flexibility of red-footed tortoises and their ability to perform reversal learning. Reversal learning involves first learning a particular discrimination task, after which the previously rewarded cue is reversed and then subjects perform the task with new reward contingencies. Red-footed tortoises were required to learn to recognise and approach visual cues within a Y-maze. Once subjects learned the visual discrimination, tortoises were required to successfully learn 4 reversals. Tortoises required significantly more trials to reach criterion (80% correct) in the first reversal, indicating the difficulty of unlearning the positive stimulus presented during training. Nevertheless, subsequent reversals required a similar number of sessions to the training stage, demonstrating that reversal learning improved up to a point. All subjects tested developed a position bias within the Y-maze that was absent prior to training, but most were able to exhibit reversal learning. Red-footed tortoises primarily adopted a win-stay choice strategy while learning the discrimination without much evidence for a lose-shift choice strategy, which may explain limits to their behavioural flexibility. However, improving performance across reversals while simultaneously overcoming a position bias provides insights into the cognitive abilities of tortoises.

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Running speed and intermediate brightness discrimination in the fresh water turtle (chrysemys).

Cited by 15 publications

References 7 publications

Black-white discrimination and orienting behavior in the desert iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis)

Black-white discrimination and orienting behavior in the desert iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis)

In vitro classical conditioning of abducens nerve discharge in turtles

Tortoises develop and overcome position biases in a reversal learning task

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