An investigation of auditory dimensional interaction in a bivariate bilateral conditioning paradigm in the rabbit

The current study adapted the Garner paradigm for diagnosing separable versus integral perceptual dimensions to the eye-blink classical conditioning paradigm using rabbits. Specifically, this study examined the ability of rabbits to categorize stimuli based on one auditory dimension while ignoring a second, irrelevant dimension by displaying an appropriate eye-blink for bilaterally conditioned discriminative responses. Tones used in training varied along two dimensions, starting frequency and magnitude of frequency sweep upwards from the start. Rabbits first learned to categorize along a single dimension (blinking one eye for one category response and the other eye for the other response) and then continued to categorize tones in a second phase in which the irrelevant dimension was varied. The variation of the irrelevant dimension did not disrupt performance, indicating that rabbits perceive these dimensions as separable.