scholarly journals Automated Operant Conditioning Devices for Fish. Do They Work?

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1397
Author(s):  
Elia Gatto ◽  
Maria Santacà ◽  
Ilaria Verza ◽  
Marco Dadda ◽  
Angelo Bisazza
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Test Chamber ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Training Procedure

The growing use of teleosts in comparative cognition and in neurobiological research has prompted many researchers to develop automated conditioning devices for fish. These techniques can make research less expensive and fully comparable with research on warm-blooded species, in which automated devices have been used for more than a century. Tested with a recently developed automated device, guppies (Poecilia reticulata) easily performed 80 reinforced trials per session, exceeding 80% accuracy in color or shape discrimination tasks after only 3–4 training session, though they exhibit unexpectedly poor performance in numerical discrimination tasks. As several pieces of evidence indicate, guppies possess excellent numerical abilities. In the first part of this study, we benchmarked the automated training device with a standard manual training procedure by administering the same set of tasks, which consisted of numerical discriminations of increasing difficulty. All manually-trained guppies quickly learned the easiest discriminations and a substantial percentage learned the more difficult ones, such as 4 vs. 5 items. No fish trained with the automated conditioning device reached the learning criterion for even the easiest discriminations. In the second part of the study, we introduced a series of modifications to the conditioning chamber and to the procedure in an attempt to improve its efficiency. Increasing the decision time, inter-trial interval, or visibility of the stimuli did not produce an appreciable improvement. Reducing the cognitive load of the task by training subjects first to use the device with shape and color discriminations, significantly improved their numerical performance. Allowing the subjects to reside in the test chamber, which likely reduced the amount of attentional resources subtracted to task execution, also led to an improvement, although in no case did subjects match the performance of fish trained with the standard procedure. Our results highlight limitations in the capacity of small laboratory teleosts to cope with operant conditioning automation that was not observed in laboratory mammals and birds and that currently prevent an easy and straightforward comparison with other vertebrates.

Long-term memory of an operantly conditioned respiratory behaviour pattern in lymnaea stagnalis

1998 ◽  
Vol 201 (6) ◽  
pp. 877-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Lukowiak ◽  
R Cotter ◽  
J Westly ◽  
E Ringseis ◽  
G Spencer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Lymnaea Stagnalis ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Freshwater Snail ◽  
Behaviour Pattern ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Training Procedure ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Hypoxic Environment

The freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis breaths bimodally either through its skin (cutaneous respiration) or via a rudimentary lung opening called the pneumostome (aerial respiration). Aerial respiratory behaviour can be operantly conditioned. Animals placed in an aquatic, hypoxic environment received a tactile stimulus to the pneumostome area every time they attempted to breathe. Over a period of five training sessions (2.5 days), the animals learned not to breathe, and the number of stimuli received in the fifth session was significantly lower than in the first session. These changes in the respiratory behaviour following the operant paradigm were shown to persist for at least 24 h. We aimed to determine whether the changes in the learned behaviour would persist for longer. We obtained direct evidence that the behavioural changes following operant conditioning persisted for at least 4 weeks following the last training session. However, we found that the persistence of this memory was dependent upon the training procedure used. Memory persisted longer following a spaced training procedure (4 weeks) as opposed to a massed training procedure (2 weeks). Yoked control animals showed no changes in their respiratory behaviour over the same time periods. However, if these yoked control animals were subjected to an operant conditioning procedure, their ability to learn was not impeded. This study demonstrated that operant conditioning of a behaviour pattern in a molluscan preparation can result in long-term memory and that the persistence of the memory is contingent on the training procedure used. <P>

The Problem of Generalization in the Operant Conditioning of Social Speech in the Severely Subnormal

1975 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Spindler Barton
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Trained Subjects ◽  
External Reinforcement ◽  
Rate Of Speech ◽  
Baseline Levels ◽  
Reversal Design ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
Do So

SummaryMany severely subnormal patients talk little to each other. In this experiment, three pairs of subjects were reinforced for talking to each other, and learned to do so quite quickly. Whether social speech would continue to occur without the benefit of external reinforcement was examined by observing the subjects through a one-way mirror in a bare interview room adjacent to the teaching room immediately after each training session. On some occasions untrained subjects were observed in the bare room with the trained subjects.The reinforcement of social speech was demonstrated to be effective by the use of a reversal design (baseline, reinforcement, no reinforcement, reinforcement), where the rate of speech increased considerably when reinforcement was available but decreased when it was discontinued. Generalization of the increased social speech, however, was very poor and only significantly above baseline levels with the pair who seemed responsive to social as well as material reinforcement. The implications of this for training programmes are discussed.

scholarly journals Perception of the Müller–Lyer illusion in guppies

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Santacà ◽  
Christian Agrillo
Keyword(s):  
Teleost Fish ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Relative Length ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Size Estimation ◽  
Lyer Illusion ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Discriminative Cue

Abstract The Müller–Lyer illusion is a well-known distortion illusion that occurs when the spatial arrangement of inducers (i.e., inwards- or outwards-pointing arrowheads) influences a line’s perceived relative length. To date, this illusion has been reported in several animal species but only in 1 teleost fish (i.e., redtail splitfins Xenotoca eiseni), although teleost fish represent approximately 50% of vertebrate diversity. We investigated the perception of this illusion in another teleost fish: guppies Poecilia reticulata, a species that diverged from the redtail splitfin 65 million years ago. The guppies were trained to select the longer between 2 lines; after meeting the learning criterion, illusory trials were presented. Control trials were also arranged to exclude the possibility that their choices were based on potential spatial biases that relate to the illusory pattern. The guppies’ overall performance indicated that they were susceptible to the Müller–Lyer illusion, perceiving the line with the inwards-pointing arrowheads as longer. The performance in the control trials excluded the possibility that the subjects used the physical differences between the 2 figures as the discriminative cue in the illusory trials. Our study suggests that sensibility to the Müller–Lyer illusion could be widespread across teleost fish and reinforces the idea that the perceptual mechanisms underlying size estimation might be similar across vertebrates.

Which Train Might Pass the Tunnel First? Testing a Learning Context Suitable for Children

1996 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 627-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Mühlherr ◽  
Martina Siemann
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Test Pair ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Nonverbal Learning

This article describes a nonverbal learning setting, using a miniature railway game, suitable for learning experiments with younger children. To test the setting a brief study on transitive responding was carried out. Children aged between 3 and 6 years were trained with pairs of different coloured trains A + B−, B + C−, C + D−, and D + E− conveying an hierarchical 5-term series A←B←C←D←E (where an arrow represents the relation: ‘A’ may pass the tunnel before ‘B’). Afterwards they were tested for transitivity with the novel test pair BD. The children learned the task quickly. On the average, they showed transitive decisions when confronted with test pair BD. However, among those children who reached the learning criterion, the 3- to 4-yr.-olds showed weaker transitivity than the 5- to 6-yr.-old children. The setting proved to be highly acceptable to the children. It can be potentially varied for operant conditioning tasks with younger children.

A Study of Social Transmission in Juvenile Dicentrarchus Labrax (Pisces, Serranidae), in an Operant Conditioning Situation

Behaviour ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 103 (4) ◽  
pp. 266-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Anthouard
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Dicentrarchus Labrax ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Conditioning Situation

Abstractjuvenile Dicentrarchus labrax having achieved good or poor performance in a task involving pushing a lever to obtain food served as demonstrators for conspecifics naive to the task. The results show that fish exposed to good demonstrators were subsequently more likely to engage in the same operant act than same-aged fish that observed poor demonstrators. Thus the development of traditions is shown to be possible in small groups of fish of the same age, originating in the appearance of a novel, adaptive behaviour by certain innovative individuals.

scholarly journals Artificial selection for schooling behaviour and its effects on associative learning abilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (23) ◽  
pp. jeb235093
Author(s):  
Regina Vega-Trejo ◽  
Annika Boussard ◽  
Lotta Wallander ◽  
Elisa Estival ◽  
Séverine D. Buechel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Weak Support ◽  
Schooling Behaviour ◽  
Selection For

ABSTRACTThe evolution of collective behaviour has been proposed to have important effects on individual cognitive abilities. Yet, in what way they are related remains enigmatic. In this context, the ‘distributed cognition’ hypothesis suggests that reliance on other group members relaxes selection for individual cognitive abilities. Here, we tested how cognitive processes respond to evolutionary changes in collective motion using replicate lines of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) artificially selected for the degree of schooling behaviour (group polarization) with >15% difference in schooling propensity. We assessed associative learning in females of these selection lines in a series of cognitive assays: colour associative learning, reversal learning, social associative learning, and individual and collective spatial associative learning. We found that control females were faster than polarization-selected females at fulfilling a learning criterion only in the colour associative learning assay, but they were also less likely to reach a learning criterion in the individual spatial associative learning assay. Hence, although testing several cognitive domains, we found weak support for the distributed cognition hypothesis. We propose that any cognitive implications of selection for collective behaviour lie outside of the cognitive abilities included in food-motivated associative learning for visual and spatial cues.

scholarly journals Multiple Memory Processes Following Training That a Food Is Inedible in Aplysia

1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Botzer ◽  
Silvia Markovich ◽  
Abraham J. Susswein
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Training Procedure ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Training Experience ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Memory Processes ◽  
Short And Long Term

In many organisms, memory after training can be separated into a number of processes. We now report that separable memory processes are also initiated by a training procedure affectingAplysia feeding behavior, a model system for examining the neural mechanisms underlying the regulation of a complex behavior. Four distinct memory process were identified: (1) a very short-term memory that declines within 15 min, (2) a short-term memory that persists for 0.5–1.0 hr, (3) an intermediate-term memory, observed 4 hr after training, and (4) a long-term memory that is seen only after a 12- to 24-hr delay. The four memory processes can be distinguished by the different training procedures that are required to elicit them. A single 5-min training session is sufficient to elicit the very short-term memory. However, a longer training session that continues until the animal stops responding to food is needed to elicit short-term memory. Intermediate-term memory is observed only after a spaced training procedure (three 5-min training sessions separated by 30-min intervals). A single 5-min training session that does not cause either short-term or intermediate-term memory is sufficient to induce long-term memory, indicating that short- and long-term memory are independent, parallel processes. Short- and long-term memory can also be separated by the effects of a post-training experience. Long-term, but not short-term, memory can be attenuated by cooling animals immediately after training. Cooling before the training does not affect either the training or the subsequent short- or long-term memory.

scholarly journals Modification of persistent responses in medial prefrontal cortex during learning in trace eyeblink conditioning

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (9) ◽  
pp. 2123-2137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Behavioral Response ◽  
Eyeblink Conditioning ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Response Magnitude ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Initial Learning ◽  
Trace Eyeblink Conditioning

Persistent spiking in response to a discrete stimulus is considered to reflect the active maintenance of a memory for that stimulus until a behavioral response is made. This response pattern has been reported in learning paradigms that impose a temporal gap between stimulus presentation and behavioral response, including trace eyeblink conditioning. However, it is unknown whether persistent responses are acquired as a function of learning or simply represent an already existing category of response type. This fundamental question was addressed by recording single-unit activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of rabbits during the initial learning phase of trace eyeblink conditioning. Persistent responses to the tone conditioned stimulus were observed in the mPFC during the very first training sessions. Further analysis revealed that most cells with persistent responses showed this pattern during the very first training trial, before animals had experienced paired training. However, persistent cells showed reliable decreases in response magnitude over the first training session, which were not observed on the second day of training or for sessions in which learning criterion was met. This modification of response magnitude was specific to persistent responses and was not observed for cells showing phasic tone-evoked responses. The data suggest that persistent responses to discrete stimuli do not require learning but that the ongoing robustness of such responses over the course of training is modified as a result of experience. Putative mechanisms for this modification are discussed, including changes in cellular or network properties, neuromodulatory tone, and/or the synaptic efficacy of tone-associated inputs.

A METHOD FOR EVALUATING THE DESTRUCTION OF AIR-BORNE BACTERIOPHAGES1,2

1964 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 125-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Sing ◽  
P. R. Elliker ◽  
W. E. Sandine
Keyword(s):  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Test Chamber ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Accurate Evaluation ◽  
Air Sampler ◽  
Controlled Conditions ◽  
Plaque Count

Summary A method was developed for testing the effectiveness of germicidal aerosols against air-borne bacteriophages by incorporating the use of an Andersen air sampler containing gelatin plates containing a suitable germicide inactivator. A special chamber 29.25 ft3 in volume was used in which the activity of different aerosols was compared. Standard dosages of bacteriophage particles were sprayed under controlled conditions into the chamber. Immediately following the infection, the experimental germicide was fogged into the chamber. Concentrations and quantities were carefully controlled in order to provide an accurate evaluation of the virucidal effects. Recoverable phages were diluted from liquefied gelatin plates and numbers determined by the plaque count technique. A number of preliminary experiments was conducted to establish a standard procedure. In these experiments the most significant information concerning applications and sampling was derived from the phage fall-out data curve for the test chamber. The procedure described under controlled conditions gave consistently satisfactory results which could be repeated.

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