Role of interproblem learning in interocular transfer.

Abstract

The learning of a pattern discrimination may be divided into two components, one specific to the pattern task and another general to it and other tasks. The purpose of these experiments was to assess the degree to which these different components transfer interocularly, as well as to determine the effects of variations in prior acquisition on interocular transfer. In the first experiment, 28 albino rats were assigned to four equal groups that permitted assessment of the influences, on acquisition or interocular transfer of a pattern discrimination, of prior ipsi-ocular, contra-ocular, or sequential binocular training on a black-white task. Interocular savings were reduced by a factor of three when the black-white task (the general component) was acquired priorly, but there was no difference between the effects of prior contra-ocular training on black-white or pattern on subsequent monocular acquisition of the pattern task. Thus, all interocular transfer might be due to the general component. The second experiment, a partial replication, was performed to clarify whether information specific to the pattern task transferred interocularly. Again, interocular savings were reduced by a factor of three after prior black-white training. However, monocular acquisition of the pattern task facilitated subsequent contra-ocular learning of that same task more so than did prior monocular acquisition of a black-white task, indicating that some contribution is made to interocular savings by the information specific to the pattern task.