Associative symmetry: I.Position learning in the gerbil

Abstract

Mongolian gerbils were trained to position in a Y maze, escaping the receipt of punishing heat by making an appropriate turn. A backward run from the positive goal was interpolated on every sixth trial, with the animal reinforced for going to either the negative goal or the start. A significant number of animals chose to return to the startbox, indicating that a bidirectional connection was formed between the start and positive goal during forward training. In addition, backward criterion was achieved significantly faster than forward criterion. The unexpected superiority of backward to forward performance was explained in terms of the relative massing of the forward trials, as well as the intrusion of curiosity behavior during frontward training. Accordingly, it was concluded that symmetrical connections are formed during forward learning. © 1976, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.