Learning in the Rat of a Choice Response by Observation of S-S Contingencies
M. Ray Denny Carla F. Clos R. Charles Bell Michigan State University
This chapter describes a program of research that contributes to the analysis of the mechanisms mediating observational learning.1 The basic design is one in which a hungry rat observes two distinctive environmental events, one having a positive consequence (food pellet) and the other a negative consequence (no pellet). These events, downward movement of two radically different levers (bars), are ones that the rat, if so permitted, could bring about by itself. Initially, though, the bars are inaccessible and operated solely by a hidden experimenter. When the rat clearly indicates it has learned the unique correlation between the movement of the positive, or S+, bar and the availability of food, both bars are made accessible to the rat to determine whether it will make the S+ event happen. Unlike many other observational learning experiments this procedure ensures that the mi has observed the relevant environmental events because it must use these events to
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Publication information:
Book title: Social Learning:Psychological and Biological Perspectives.
Contributors: Thomas R. Zentall - Editor, Bennett G. Galef Jr. - Editor.
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Place of publication: Hillsdale, NJ.
Publication year: 1988.
Page number: 207.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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