Overshadowing of Geometry Learning by Discrete Landmarks in the Water Maze: Effects of Relative Salience and Relative Validity of Competing Cues
Overshadowing of Geometry Learning by Discrete Landmarks in the Water Maze: Effects of Relative Salience and Relative Validity of Competing Cues
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DOI：
10.1037/a0031199
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发表时间：
2013-04-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
McGregor, Anthony
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kosaki, Yutaka;Austen, Joe M.;McGregor, Anthony
使用水迷宫范式在大鼠中研究了刺激显着性和提示有效性对离散地标遮蔽封闭场地几何特征的影响。实验1表明，在h菱形区域中，锐角比钝角更突出。在实验 2 中，训练老鼠在锐角或钝角之一中寻找水下平台。除了角角度提供的信息之外，平台还通过悬浮在实验组大鼠平台上方的球形地标的存在来发出信号。与拐角的角度相比，地标是预测平台位置更有效的线索。这种训练导致地标的存在掩盖了对拐角角度的学习。最终实验扩展了这一结果，表明当角度和地标的预测有效性在实验组中匹配时，几何学的学习仍然被地标的存在所掩盖，但仅限于在钝角而非锐角处接受平台训练的动物。这些结果独特地证明了几何学的学习可能会被离散的地标所掩盖，而且是否观察到掩盖取决于刺激的显着性和竞争线索的相对有效性。这些发现意味着基于几何线索的学习遵循适用于各种其他学习范式的相同基本规则。
The effects of stimulus salience and cue validity in the overshadowing of geometric features of an enclosed arena by discrete landmarks were investigated in rats using the water maze paradigm. Experiment 1 established that in h rhomboid-shaped arena, the acute corner was more salient than the obtuse corner. In Experiment 2, rats were trained to find a submerged platform either in one of the acute, or obtuse, corners. In addition to the information provided by corner angle, the platform was also signaled by the presence of a spherical landmark suspended above the platform for rats in the experimental group. The landmark was a more valid cue for predicting the location of the platform than the angle of the corner. This training resulted in overshadowing of learning about the angle of the corner by the presence of the landmark. The final experiment extended this result by showing that when the predictive validities of the angle and the landmark were matched in the experimental group, learning about geometry was still overshadowed by the presence of landmarks, but only in animals that were trained with the platform at an obtuse, but not acute, corner. These results uniquely demonstrate that learning about geometry can be overshadowed by discrete landmarks, and also that whether overshadowing is observed depends on the stimulus salience and the relative validity of the competing cues. These findings imply that learning based on geometric cues follows the same basic rules that apply to a wide range of other learning paradigms.