Memory transfer in planarians: An artifact of the experimental variables

Abstract

The conditioning rate of naive planarians which had ingested light-shock conditioned worms was compared with that of control groups which had ingested shock-exposed, light-exposed, and light-shock extinguished Ss, as well as with an original conditioning group. None of the cannibals showed systematic increase in conditioned responses over 75 trials, and there was no difference in the number of conditioned responses emitted by the conditioned-cannibal group. This is interpreted as supporting an hypothesis that tissue-sensitivity to the experimental variables rather than memory transfer had occurred. © 1966, Psychonomic Press. All rights reserved.