scholarly journals Configural learning: a higher form of learning inLymnaea

2019 ◽  
Vol 222 (3) ◽  
pp. jeb190405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cayley Swinton ◽  
Erin Swinton ◽  
Tamila Shymansky ◽  
Emily Hughes ◽  
Jack Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Configural Learning

scholarly journals Multisensory integration supports configural learning of a home refuge in the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus

2021 ◽  
Vol 224 (3) ◽  
pp. jeb238444
Author(s):  
Kaylyn A. S. Flanigan ◽  
Daniel D. Wiegmann ◽  
Eileen A. Hebets ◽  
Verner P. Bingman
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Terminal Phase ◽  
Mushroom Bodies ◽  
Configural Learning ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Paired Stimuli ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Multisensory Learning

ABSTRACTWhip spiders (Amblypygi) reside in structurally complex habitats and are nocturnally active yet display notable navigational abilities. From the theory that uncertainty in sensory inputs should promote multisensory representations to guide behavior, we hypothesized that their navigation is supported by a multisensory and perhaps configural representation of navigational inputs, an ability documented in a few insects and never reported in arachnids. We trained Phrynus marginemaculatus to recognize a home shelter characterized by both discriminative olfactory and tactile stimuli. In tests, subjects readily discriminated between shelters based on the paired stimuli. However, subjects failed to recognize the shelter in tests with either of the component stimuli alone. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that the terminal phase of their navigational behavior, shelter recognition, can be supported by the integration of multisensory stimuli as an enduring, configural representation. We hypothesize that multisensory learning occurs in the whip spiders' extraordinarily large mushroom bodies, which may functionally resemble the hippocampus of vertebrates.

What Are the Nodes? Unitization and Configural Learning vs. Selective Attention

2018 ◽  
pp. 69-98
Author(s):  
Vsevolod Kapatsinski
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Configural Learning ◽  
Incremental Processing ◽  
Promising Area ◽  
Dual Route ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter introduces the debate between elemental and configural learning models. Configural models represent both a whole pattern and its parts as separate nodes, which are then both associable, i.e. available for wiring with other nodes. This necessitates a kind of hierarchical inference at the timescale of learning and motivates a dual-route approach at the timescale of processing. Some patterns of language change (semanticization and frequency-in-a-favourable-context effects) are argued to be attributable to hierarchical inference. The most prominent configural pattern in language is argued to be a superadditive interaction. However, such interactions are argued to often be unstable in comprehension due to selective attention and incremental processing. Selective attention causes the learner to focus on one part of a configuration over others. Incremental processing favors the initial part, which can then overshadow other parts and drive the recognition decision. Only with extensive experience, can one can learn to integrate multiple cues. When cues are integrated, the weaker cue can cue the outcome directly or can serve as an occasion-setter to the relationship between the outcome and the primary cue. The conditions under which occasion-setting arises in language acquisition is a promising area for future research.

Elemental and Configural Learning and the Perception of Odorant Mixtures by the Spiny Lobster Panulirus argus

1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Livermore ◽  
Michelle Hutson ◽  
Vivian Ngo ◽  
Ritsa Hadjisimos ◽  
Charles D Derby
Keyword(s):  
Spiny Lobster ◽  
Panulirus Argus ◽  
Configural Learning

scholarly journals Neural substrate for higher-order learning in an insect: Mushroom bodies are necessary for configural discriminations

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (43) ◽  
pp. E5854-E5862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Marc Devaud ◽  
Thomas Papouin ◽  
Julie Carcaud ◽  
Jean-Christophe Sandoz ◽  
Bernd Grünewald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Structures ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Mushroom Bodies ◽  
Insect Brain ◽  
Configural Learning ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Elemental Learning

Learning theories distinguish elemental from configural learning based on their different complexity. Although the former relies on simple and unambiguous links between the learned events, the latter deals with ambiguous discriminations in which conjunctive representations of events are learned as being different from their elements. In mammals, configural learning is mediated by brain areas that are either dispensable or partially involved in elemental learning. We studied whether the insect brain follows the same principles and addressed this question in the honey bee, the only insect in which configural learning has been demonstrated. We used a combination of conditioning protocols, disruption of neural activity, and optophysiological recording of olfactory circuits in the bee brain to determine whether mushroom bodies (MBs), brain structures that are essential for memory storage and retrieval, are equally necessary for configural and elemental olfactory learning. We show that bees with anesthetized MBs distinguish odors and learn elemental olfactory discriminations but not configural ones, such as positive and negative patterning. Inhibition of GABAergic signaling in the MB calyces, but not in the lobes, impairs patterning discrimination, thus suggesting a requirement of GABAergic feedback neurons from the lobes to the calyces for nonelemental learning. These results uncover a previously unidentified role for MBs besides memory storage and retrieval: namely, their implication in the acquisition of ambiguous discrimination problems. Thus, in insects as in mammals, specific brain regions are recruited when the ambiguity of learning tasks increases, a fact that reveals similarities in the neural processes underlying the elucidation of ambiguous tasks across species.

scholarly journals Learning strategies in matching to sample: If-then and configural learning by pigeons

2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Katz ◽  
Kent D. Bodily ◽  
Anthony A. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Matching To Sample ◽  
Configural Learning

scholarly journals Elemental and Configural Associative Learning in Spatial Tasks: Could Zebrafish be Used to Advance Our Knowledge?

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Buatois ◽  
Robert Gerlai
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Learning ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Spatial Task ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Spatial Learning And Memory ◽  
Configural Learning ◽  
Association Learning ◽  
Laboratory Rodents ◽  
Spatial Tasks ◽  
Behavioral Mechanisms

Spatial learning and memory have been studied for several decades. Analyses of these processes pose fundamental scientific questions but are also relevant from a biomedical perspective. The cellular, synaptic and molecular mechanisms underlying spatial learning have been intensively investigated, yet the behavioral mechanisms/strategies in a spatial task still pose unanswered questions. Spatial learning relies upon configural information about cues in the environment. However, each of these cues can also independently form part of an elemental association with the specific spatial position, and thus spatial tasks may be solved using elemental (single CS and US association) learning. Here, we first briefly review what we know about configural learning from studies with rodents. Subsequently, we discuss the pros and cons of employing a relatively novel laboratory organism, the zebrafish in such studies, providing some examples of methods with which both elemental and configural learning may be explored with this species. Last, we speculate about future research directions focusing on how zebrafish may advance our knowledge. We argue that zebrafish strikes a reasonable compromise between system complexity and practical simplicity and that adding this species to the studies with laboratory rodents will allow us to gain a better understanding of both the evolution of and the mechanisms underlying spatial learning. We conclude that zebrafish research will enhance the translational relevance of our findings.

scholarly journals Configural learning in freshly collected, smart, wild Lymnaea

2019 ◽  
Vol 222 (23) ◽  
pp. jeb212886
Author(s):  
Diana Kagan ◽  
Ken Lukowiak
Keyword(s):  
Configural Learning
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