Lazarowski Lucia, Goodman Adam, Galizio Mark, Bruce Katherine
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd., Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA.
Canine Performance Sciences, Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn, AL, USA.
Anim Cogn. 2019 Sep;22(5):733-742. doi: 10.1007/s10071-019-01270-5. Epub 2019 May 30.
Match (MTS) and non-match-to-sample (NMTS) procedures are used to assess concepts of identity and oddity across species and are measured by transfer performance to novel stimuli. The number of exemplars used in training (set size) has been shown to affect learning with evidence of larger set sizes promoting concept learning in several species. The present study explored the effects of set size and procedure on concept learning in rats using olfactory stimuli. Concept learning was assessed for 20 rats via transfer tests consisting of novel stimuli after rats were initially trained to either MTS or NMTS with two or ten stimuli as exemplars. No difference was found in acquisition or transfer between MTS and NMTS, but rats trained with ten stimuli performed better on novel transfer tests than rats trained with two. When set size was expanded for rats originally trained with two stimuli and rats were re-tested with ten novel stimuli, performance showed full transfer demonstrating that training with multiple exemplars facilitates concept learning.
匹配（MTS）和非匹配样本（NMTS）程序用于评估跨物种的同一性和奇异性概念，并通过对新刺激的迁移表现来衡量。研究表明，训练中使用的范例数量（集合大小）会影响学习，有证据表明更大的集合大小会促进几个物种的概念学习。本研究使用嗅觉刺激探究了集合大小和程序对大鼠概念学习的影响。在大鼠最初接受以两个或十个刺激作为范例的MTS或NMTS训练后，通过由新刺激组成的迁移测试对20只大鼠的概念学习进行评估。在MTS和NMTS之间的习得或迁移方面未发现差异，但接受十个刺激训练的大鼠在新的迁移测试中的表现优于接受两个刺激训练的大鼠。当最初接受两个刺激训练的大鼠的集合大小扩大，并用十个新刺激重新测试时，表现出完全迁移，这表明使用多个范例进行训练有助于概念学习。
