Rapid acquisition of an auditory localization discrimination by rats.
Put the cue and the response in the same spot to speed up new discriminations.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Thompson et al. (1971) taught rats to press the lever closest to a beeping speaker.
Some rats earned food for pressing the near lever. Others earned food for pressing the far lever.
The team watched how fast each group learned the correct lever.
What they found
Rats rewarded for the near lever learned the job quickly.
Rats rewarded for the far lever learned much more slowly.
Sound location guided the rats’ choices more than the food rule did.
How this fits with other research
White (1979) repeated the setup and saw the same thing. Spatial contiguity beat the written rule.
Reynolds (1966) showed loud sounds speed learning. D et al. added that nearness also speeds learning.
Meuret et al. (2001) later used noise as something kids want to escape. The rat work shows the same noise can be a simple cue or an aversive event, depending on how you program it.
Why it matters
Place the teaching material close to the response you want. If the card, sound, or picture sits across the table, the learner may struggle even when the rule is clear. Bring the stimulus nearer or have the child move closer. You should see faster acquisition and fewer errors.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Acquisition of a sound localization discrimination by rats was investigated. Two loudspeakers were located outside an experimental enclosure containing two levers and a dipper feeder. In the same-side condition, responses on the lever nearest the sound-producing speaker were reinforced. Animals in this condition acquired the discrimination rapidly, generally within the first session. In the opposite-side condition, responses on the lever furthest from the sound-producing speaker were reinforced. Acquisition for animals in this condition began below the chance level (50% correct responses) and took on the order of 10 sessions to approach the final, high level. The course of acquisition in both cases appeared to depend upon an initial tendency of rats to respond on the lever nearest the source of sound in this situation. The rise-decay time of the 4-kHz tone burst signal clearly affected the performance level reached. It did not, however, affect the rate at which the discrimination was acquired.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1971 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1971.16-193