ERIC Number: EJ792096
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 13
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0033-2933
EISSN: N/A
Inference Based on Transitive Relation in Tree Shrews ("Tupaia belangeri") and Rats ("Rattus norvegicus") on a Spatial Discrimination Task
Takahashi, Makoto; Ushitani, Tomokazu; Fujita, Kazuo
Psychological Record, v58 n2 p215-227 Spr 2008
Six tree shrews and 8 rats were tested for their ability to infer transitively in a spatial discrimination task. The apparatus was a semicircular radial-arm maze with 8 arms labeled A through H. In Experiment 1, the animals were first trained in sequence on 4 discriminations to enter 1 of the paired adjacent arms, AB, BC, CD, and DE, with right (or left, for half the animals) symbols signifying positive options; then they were tested with the previously unused pair of arms, FH. All tree shrews and 4 rats transitively chose H (or F for half the animals). In Experiment 2, all tree shrews and 5 rats transitively chose H (or F) on 3-option tests of FGH. The results suggest that these animals used transitive relation in solving novel problems. (Contains 5 figures and 2 tables.)
Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Mailcode 4609, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-4609. Tel: 618-536-7704; e-mail: psychrec@siu.edu; Web site: http://www.siuc.edu/~ThePsychologicalRecord/index.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A