Hippocampal lesions and associative learning in the pigeon.
The performance of pigeons with hippocampal lesions was compared with that of unoperated and neostriatal-lesioned control Ss in 3 experiments. In Experiment 1, hippocampal-lesioned birds were retarded in the acquisition and the maintenance levels of autoshaped responding. However, the deficit was attenuated following the addition of a response contingency to the autoshaping schedule. In Experiment 2, the hippocampal-lesioned birds showed impaired performance on a differential reinforcement of low rates of responding schedule. From the high levels of responding in Experiment 2, underresponding was observed in hippocampal-lesioned birds relative to control Ss on return to the autoshaping schedule in Experiment 3. Results are interpreted in terms of impaired classical conditioning in hippocampal-lesioned birds.
Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, England.
S
S
Reilly
M
M
Good
D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D010856:Columbidae; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule