M Horter | PubMed Health

PubMed1977

[The applied time interval as a learnable dimension].

The possibility of learning time intervals was examined. 7 male BDE-rats (70 days old at the beginning of the experiments) were trained (shock avoidance learning) in a modified test chamber to learn bar-pressing only in distinguished time periods (LD 12 : 12). In a second part of the experiment it was examined with 5 rats what effect an extension of the light phase has. The results show that there is a possibility of learning time intervals and of maintaining this behaviour under these specific conditions of training.

Animals↗

PubMed1976

[Age-specific learning ability in Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)].

The main question of our investigation is: Do there exist age-specific learning abilities in animals? 120 QUAILS (Coturnix coturnix japonica) of 12 different age groups (between one day and 20 weeks) were tested in a combination apparatus 0y using two training methods. 60 quails were trained with decreasing (1), 60 other quails with increasing learning assistance (2). In each case the learning period lasted 5 days after which the animals were tested in a two-way choice apparatus and in a simple maze. Retention was tested 3 weeks later. - The 2 methods led to different results. In general the younger animals learnt better than the other ones when trained by method 1. No differences in learning performance between the 12 age groups were obtained by method 2.

Age Factors↗