Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Rule abstraction, item memory, and chunking in rat serial-pattern tracking.

S B Fountain1

  • 1Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Ohio 44242-0001.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes
|January 1, 1990
PubMed
Summary

Rats can recognize and learn structured patterns, showing sensitivity to their formal rules. This research demonstrates rats

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The in vitro hippocampal slice preparation as a screen for neurotoxicity.

Toxicology in vitro : an international journal published in association with BIBRA·2010
Same author

Extracellular Ca(2+) modulation of triethyltin neurotoxicity in area CA1 of the rat hippocampal slice.

Toxicology in vitro : an international journal published in association with BIBRA·2010
Same author

A multiple species approach to sequential learning: are you a man or a mouse?

Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc·2001
Same author

Suppression of hippocampal slice excitability by 2-, 3-, and 4-methylpyridine.

Ecotoxicology and environmental safety·2001
Same author

Effects of sequential exposure to multiple concentrations of methylmercury in the rat hippocampal slice.

Ecotoxicology and environmental safety·2000
Same author

Coding of hierarchical versus linear pattern structure in rats and humans.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes·1995

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive science
  • Animal behavior
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Investigating animal cognition and pattern recognition abilities.
  • Understanding the capacity for abstract rule learning in non-human species.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if rats (Rattus norvegicus) can perceive and learn rule-based structures in serial patterns.
  • To explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying pattern encoding in rats.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing a stimulus tracking paradigm with hooded rats.
  • Employing 16-element patterns of flashing lights and lever-pressing responses.
  • Manipulating temporal "phrasing" cues to influence pattern encoding.

Main Results:

  • Rats exhibited more errors at structural "chunk" boundaries than within chunks.
  • Errors suggested anticipation of upcoming patterns or extrapolation of preceding ones.
  • Temporal cues successfully induced different rule-based representations of the same pattern.

Conclusions:

  • Rats demonstrate sensitivity to the formal, rule-based properties of structured serial patterns.
  • Under specific conditions, rats can encode abstract structural representations during learning.
  • Findings suggest a more sophisticated level of cognitive processing in rats than previously assumed.

Related Experiment Videos