Spatial Relations in Animal Learning and Behavior

Bowe, Craig A.

doi:10.1007/bf03394864

Cited by 48 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Macphail treats the detection of causal links as a necessary prerequisite to prediction in all environments. Spatial (e.g., Bowe 1984) and temporal (e.g., Mackintosh 1974) constraints on conditioning may thus reflect fundamental causal constraints shared by all terrestrial environments. Many of the basic "facts' of learning (e.g., US [unconditional stimulus] habituation, latent inhibition, US intensity effects) follow from this view, perhaps reflecting internalized invariants of causal inference (see Revusky, 1985, for a convincing demonstration of this point).…”

Section: Chimps and Dolphins: Intellectual Bedfellows Of The Goldfishmentioning

confidence: 99%

The comparative psychology of intelligence

1987

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Recent decades have seen a number of influential attacks on the comparative psychology of learning and intelligence. Two specific charges have been that the use of distantly related species has prevented us from making valid evolutionary inferences and that learning mechanisms are species-specific adaptations to ecological niches and hence not properly comparable between species. It is argued here that work using distantly related species may yield valuable insights into the structure of intelligence and that the question of whether or not learning mechanisms are niche-specific is one which can only be answered by comparative work in "nonnatural" situations. The problems involved in defining and assessing intelligence are discussed. Experimental work has not succeeded in demonstrating differences in intellect among nonhuman vertebrates. Hence the null hypothesis-that there are no differences in intellect among nonhuman vertebrates-should be adopted; the superiority of human intelligence stems from our possessing a species-specific language-acquisition device. One implication of the null hypothesis is that general problem-solving capacity is independent of niche-specific adaptations. A second implication is that problem-solving may involve relatively simple mechanisms; association formation in particular may play a central role in nonhuman intelligence, allowing the successful detection of causal links between events. Causality is a constraint common to all ecological niches.

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Section: Chimps and Dolphins: Intellectual Bedfellows Of The Goldfishmentioning

confidence: 99%

The comparative psychology of intelligence

1987

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“…Given a choice, animals generally prefer cues that are more spatially and temporally proximate to food (Bowe, 1984). For example, rats quickly learn to choose the location of the rewarded arm of a T-maze (Kimble, 1961;Terrace, 1984), and pigeons differentially peck a key that is more likely to produce reward in a short time (Baum, 1974;Herrnstein, 1970).…”

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confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal characteristics of serial CSs and their relation to search modes and response form

Silva

Timberlake

Gont

1998

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In four experiments, we examined how the spatiotemporal proximity to food of the two elements of a serial conditioned stimulus (CS) influenced the pattern of C8--directed versus food-site-directed behavior in rats. Experiment I showed that only temporal proximity affected responding when the serial CS consisted of two successive 4-sec presentations of either a spatially near or a spatially far lever (NN or FF). However, Experiment 2 showed that behavior depended markedly on whether rats received a near followed by a far lever (NF) or a far followed by a near lever (FN). Experiment 3 showed that the effects of Experiment 2 could be changed by increasing the duration ofthe second CS element, and Experiment 4 showed that these changes were not related to previous training. We concluded that behavior produced by the spatiotemporal qualities of the lever elements can be attributed to a mapping between the temporal qualities of the CSelements and an underlying sequence of search modes related to finding food.

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“…Quite apart from their relevance to the quality-location hypothesis, the present results emphasize the importance of experimental investigations into the effects of spatial relations among stimuli on classical conditioning in particular, and on learning and behavior in general (see Bowe, 1984). Although little research in classical conditioning has been concerned with the roles of various spatial relations, there have been some recent efforts to conduct such investigation (e.g., Marshall et al, 1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1979;Testa, 1975).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Differential acquisition of discriminated autoshaping as a function of stimulus qualities and locations

Bowe

Green

Miller

1987

Animal Learning & Behavior

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In each of two experiments, different groups of pigeons were required to discriminate between one of two basic kinds of stimulus differences: stimulus quality or stimulus location. For stimulusquality groups, a key was illuminated by one of two colors on trials ending with food delivery and by the other color on trials ending with no food. For stimulus-location groups, a key was illuminated at one of two locations on trials ending with food delivery and at the other location on trials ending with no food. The birds began to respond differentially to the stimuli (i.e., peck the keys on food trials and not peck the keys on no-food trials) earlier in acquisiton if the stimulus qualities served as the signals for trial outcomes than ifthe stimulus locations served as those signals. The results from both experiments are consistent with predictions from a hypothesis regarding interactions among the qualities and locations of stimuli and responses (the "qualitylocation hypothesis"). Furthermore, the present results support other recent demonstrations of the important role that spatial relations among stimuli can play in classical conditioning.Previous research concerning the role of spatial relations in classical conditioning has focused on the necessary and sufficient conditions for the acquisition of signal value by a CS (e.g., Marshall, Gokey, Green, & Rashotte, 1979;Rescorla & Cunningham, 1979;Testa, 1975). Those studies asked how the spatial relations between a CS and a US or between a first-and a secondorder CS can affect the development and expression of a conditioned response. Another way in which a spatial relation might be an important factor in classical conditioning, however, is suggested by Szwejkowska's (1967) experiment and by some informal observations made by Rowe, Miller, and Green (1984) during a series of instrumentaI-eonditioning experiments. Both Szwejkowska's andBowe et al.'s studies involved an effect of spatial relations on the acquisition of a discrimination between two stimuli, rather than on the acquisition of a conditioned response to a single stimulus. In both cases, differential responding was more readily established if the stimuli differed in "quality" (i.e., sound

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Spatial Relations in Animal Learning and Behavior

Cited by 48 publications

References 48 publications

The comparative psychology of intelligence

The comparative psychology of intelligence

Spatiotemporal characteristics of serial CSs and their relation to search modes and response form

Differential acquisition of discriminated autoshaping as a function of stimulus qualities and locations

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