The effect of bias-rearing on transfer after form discrimination training in the rat

Abstract

Light-, dark-, and dot-reared rats were trained on a three-way oddity discrimination of horizontal and vertical rows of dots and were then tested on five sets of transfer stimuli including the original dot stimuli and stimuli with solid stripes in the same orientations. Anomalous transfer effects and effects on discrimination ability due to biased rearing were not found to be as general as previously thought. The absence of behavioral consequence of bias-rearing is discussed in relation to recent neurophysiological and behavioral evidence.

Effect of controlled rearing on the development of stimulus-seeking behavior in rats.

“…In effect, the exposure to the dots seemed to facilitate the development of a relatively normal preference for features. Such a finding is consistent with other recent findings that have emphasized the limited changes produced by bias-rearing in neural (Leventhal & Hirsch, 1975, 1977 and behavioral indexes (Bruinsma & Tees, 1977). It is possible, of course, that had choices involving more complex patterns been available to LR (Experiment 1) and Dot-R (Experiment 2) rats especially at 75 and 90 days of age, significantly greater differences in preference behavior might have been observed between the differentially reared groups.…”

“…There has been little work done on the effects of early selective exposure on visual behavior in the rat. The evidence that is available is somewhat ambiguous (Bruinsma & Tees, 1977; Rothblat, Reisen, & Walk, Note 1) and has involved testing at maturity on contour orientation discrimination tasks. The stimulus-seeking paradigm we employed in Experiment 1 might prove to be especially sensitive to the effects of biased rearing and, at least, enables us to look at these potential effects throughout development.…”

“…Subjects and rearing conditions A total of 10 male and 10 female Long-Evans hooded rats {Rattus norveaicus,) from four litters were randomly assigned to one of two rearing conditions dot reared (Dot-R) and dark-reared stress (DR-S) The general rearing and cage conditions for all rats were the same as those described for the DR rats in Experiment 1; however, the 10 Dot-R rats, received restricted visual stimulation from 16 to 45 days of age The procedures involved have been described previously (Bruinsma & Tees, 1977) Individual rats were placed in separate cylinders (21 X 7 5 cm) for 2 hr daily Except for light entering the cylinders through a random array of pinholes at one end of the tube, the apparatus was light-tight The 20 pinholes were scattered over an area of 5 cm in diameter and were a minimum of 4 mm apart Since the dotrearing procedure involved a considerable amount of handling and possible stress due to isolation and confinement, the DR-S group was also randomly assigned from the four litters, and the 10 DR-S (5 male, 5 female) rats received identical handling and cylinder experience but did not receive any visual stimulation.…”

Specifying the effect of visual deprivation on the rat's ability to recognize patterns.

“…Evidence summarized previously (Tees, 1976) is consistent with the idea that some basic information processing capacities depend in only a limited way on visual experience for their development. These capacities might be roughly subserved under the rubric of feature detection (e.g., Sutherland, 1973).In the case of one of these, the ability to discriminate contour orientation, measurement of stimulus control for light-reared (LR) and dark-reared (DR) rats has involved extensive testing, and experience appeared to play little role in the ontogeny of this capacity (Bruinsma & Tees, 1977;…”

“…In the case of one of these, the ability to discriminate contour orientation, measurement of stimulus control for light-reared (LR) and dark-reared (DR) rats has involved extensive testing, and experience appeared to play little role in the ontogeny of this capacity (Bruinsma & Tees, 1977;…”