Scholtyssek Christine, Kelber Almut, Hanke Frederike D, Dehnhardt Guido
Sensory and Cognitive Ecology Group, Institute for Biosciences, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Str.3, 18059, Rostock, Germany.
Anim Cogn. 2013 Nov;16(6):915-25. doi: 10.1007/s10071-013-0624-0. Epub 2013 Mar 28.
We investigated the formation of an abstract concept of same/different in a harbor seal by means of a two-item same/different task. Stimuli were presented on a TFT monitor. The subject was trained to respond according to whether two horizontally aligned white shapes presented on a black background were the same, or different from each other, by giving a no-go or go response. Training comprised of four stages. First, the same/different task was trained with two shapes forming two same problems (A-A and B-B) and two different problems (A-B and B-A). After the learning criterion was reached, training proceeded with new pairs of shapes. In the second experimental stage, every problem was presented just five times before new problems were introduced. We showed that training to criterion with just two shapes resulted in item-specific learning, whereas reducing the number of presentations to five per problem led to the formation of a same/different learning set as well as some restricted relational learning. Training with trial-unique problems in the third stage of this study resulted in the formation of an abstract concept of same/different which was indicated by a highly significant performance in transfer tests with 120 novel problems. Finally, extra-dimensional transfer of the concept was tested. The harbor seal showed a significantly correct performance on transfer tests with 30 unfamiliar pattern and 60 unfamiliar brightness same/different problems, thus demonstrating that the concept is not restricted to the shape dimension originally learned, but can be generalized across stimulus dimensions.
我们通过一项两项相同/不同任务，研究了斑海豹对相同/不同抽象概念的形成。刺激物呈现在一台薄膜晶体管显示器上。训练受试斑海豹根据黑色背景上水平排列的两个白色形状是相同还是不同，通过给出禁止或执行反应来做出回应。训练包括四个阶段。首先，使用两个形状训练相同/不同任务，形成两个相同问题（A - A和B - B）以及两个不同问题（A - B和B - A）。达到学习标准后，用新的形状对继续训练。在第二个实验阶段，每个问题在引入新问题之前仅呈现五次。我们发现，仅用两个形状训练至标准会导致特定项目学习，而将每个问题的呈现次数减少到五次则会导致相同/不同学习集的形成以及一些有限的关系学习。在本研究的第三阶段，用独特试验问题进行训练导致了相同/不同抽象概念的形成，这在对120个新问题的迁移测试中表现为高度显著的成绩。最后，测试了该概念的维度外迁移。斑海豹在对30个不熟悉图案和60个不熟悉亮度相同/不同问题的迁移测试中表现出显著正确的成绩，从而表明该概念不限于最初学习的形状维度，而是可以跨刺激维度进行泛化。
