title: Touchscreen-enhanced visual learning in rats.
abstract: The efficiency of traditional levers and of modern touchscreen technology for training rats on a computerized visual discrimination was studied in a series of observations. When compared with a lever-based discrimination procedure, the use of touchscreens supported the faster development of signal tracking behavior and acquisition of a two-stimulus simultaneous visual discrimination. It did not affect the final level of accuracy. Factors related to spatial proximity of the responses with the stimuli, sign-tracking, and increased ease of touchscreen motor responses were suggested as possible reasons for the touchscreen training advantage. This increased efficiency allows large numbers of animals to be tested quickly, a necessary requirement for studies involving genetic and physiological interventions.
authors.affiliation: Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA. robert.cook@tufts.edu
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Alfred I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Geller
authors.forename: Guo-Rong
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ram
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gowda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011589:Psychology, Experimental / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D014584:User-Computer Interface