Hall Nathaniel J, Smith David W, Wynne Clive D L
Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA,
Learn Behav. 2014 Jun;42(2):144-52. doi: 10.3758/s13420-013-0133-7.
In two experiments, we investigated the impact of odor preexposure treatments on the acquisition of an olfactory discrimination in dogs. In the first experiment, four groups of dogs were each given five days' odor-exposure treatment prior to discrimination training. Dogs in the exposure group were exposed to anise extract (S+) for 30 min daily. Dogs in the Pavlovian-relevant pairing group received six daily delayed-conditioning trials to the same S+. The Pavlovian-irrelevant pairing group received conditioning trials to almond extract (S'). Dogs in the control group received no pretreatment. All of the dogs were then trained to detect S+ from a background pine odor (an AX-vs.-X discrimination). The Pavlovian-relevant pairing group acquired the odor discrimination significantly faster than all of the other exposure and control groups, and the remaining groups acquired the discrimination at the same rate as the no-exposure control group. In a second experiment, we extended these results to a within-subjects design using an AX-versus-BX discrimination. Six dogs were simultaneously trained on two different odor discriminations, one discrimination in which the S+ was previously Pavlovian conditioned, and one discrimination in which the S+ was novel. All of the dogs learned the odor discrimination with the previously conditioned S+ faster than they learned the novel odor discrimination, replicating the results of Experiment 1, and demonstrating that familiarity in the form of Pavlovian conditioning enhances odor-discrimination training. The potential mechanisms of the facilitated transfer of a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus to discrimination training are discussed.
在两项实验中，我们研究了气味预暴露处理对狗嗅觉辨别能力习得的影响。在第一个实验中，四组狗在进行辨别训练前均接受了为期五天的气味暴露处理。暴露组的狗每天接触茴芹提取物（S+）30分钟。巴甫洛夫相关配对组的狗每天接受六次针对相同S+的延迟条件反射试验。巴甫洛夫不相关配对组的狗接受针对杏仁提取物（S'）的条件反射试验。对照组的狗未接受预处理。然后，所有的狗都接受训练，从背景松树气味中检测出S+（AX对X辨别）。巴甫洛夫相关配对组比所有其他暴露组和对照组更快地获得了气味辨别能力，其余组获得辨别的速度与未暴露对照组相同。在第二个实验中，我们使用AX对BX辨别，将这些结果扩展到了被试内设计。六只狗同时接受两种不同的气味辨别训练，一种辨别中S+先前已进行巴甫洛夫条件反射，另一种辨别中S+是新的。所有的狗学习先前已条件化的S+的气味辨别比学习新的气味辨别更快，重复了实验1的结果，并表明以巴甫洛夫条件反射形式存在的熟悉度增强了气味辨别训练。我们还讨论了巴甫洛夫条件刺激向辨别训练促进性转移的潜在机制。
