[Effects of interrun interval shift in the reward serial learning of the rat on the straight runway].
Using runway training procedure, three experiments examined effects of interrun interval (IRI) shift on serial pattern learning in rats. Series consisted of varying number of 0.045 g food pellets given in a goal box of a runway. Groups of rats were trained with 24-10-1-0 or 24-16-10-6-3-1-0 series (Experiment 1), 14-7-3-1-0 series (Experiment 2), and 18-12-6-3-1-0 or 18-7-7-7-1-0 series (Experiment 3), under either short (15-20 s) or long (5-15 min) IRI. In test phases, IRI was shifted from short to long or vice versa. Anticipation of 0 pellet was not disrupted by shortening of IRI, whereas lengthening of IRI eliminated the 0 pellet anticipation of the five- to seven-item monotonic series but did not eliminate that for the four-item series and the nonmonotonic series. These results suggest that rats learn a series with different strategies depending on IRI, pattern length, or structural complexity of a series.
Taniuchi
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Institute of Psychology, University of Tsukuba.
D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012201:Reward; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors