Mueller-Paul Julia, Wilkinson Anna, Aust Ulrike, Steurer Michael, Hall Geoffrey, Huber Ludwig
Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN2 2LG, UK.
Behav Processes. 2014 Jul;106:187-92. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.06.003. Epub 2014 Jun 16.
In recent years red-footed tortoises have been shown to be proficient in a number of spatial cognition tasks that involve movement of the animal through space (e.g., the radial maze). The present study investigated the ability of the tortoise to learn a spatial task in which the response required was simply to touch a stimulus presented in a given position on a touchscreen. We also investigated the relation between this task and performance in a different spatial task (an arena, in which whole-body movement was required). Four red-footed tortoises learned to operate the touchscreen apparatus, and two learned the simple spatial discrimination. The side-preference trained with the touchscreen was maintained when behaviour was tested in a physical arena. When the contingencies in the arena were then reversed, the tortoises learned the reversal but in a subsequent test did not transfer it to the touchscreen. Rather they chose the side that had been rewarded originally on the touchscreen. The results show that red-footed tortoises are able to operate a touchscreen and can successfully solve a spatial two-choice task in this apparatus. There was some indication that the preference established with the touchscreen could transfer to an arena, but with subsequent training in the arena independent patterns of choice were established that could be evoked according to the test context.
近年来，红腿陆龟已被证明在一些涉及动物在空间中移动的空间认知任务（如放射状迷宫）中表现出色。本研究调查了陆龟学习空间任务的能力，在该任务中，所需的反应仅仅是触摸触摸屏上给定位置呈现的刺激物。我们还研究了这项任务与在不同空间任务（一个需要全身移动的场地）中的表现之间的关系。四只红腿陆龟学会了操作触摸屏设备，两只学会了简单的空间辨别。当在物理场地测试行为时，在触摸屏上训练的侧偏好得以保持。当场地中的条件随后反转时，陆龟学会了反转，但在随后的测试中并未将其转移到触摸屏上。相反，它们选择了最初在触摸屏上得到奖励的那一侧。结果表明，红腿陆龟能够操作触摸屏，并能在该设备中成功解决空间二选一任务。有一些迹象表明，通过触摸屏建立的偏好可以转移到场地中，但随着在场地中的后续训练，建立了可以根据测试环境唤起的独立选择模式。
