Direct Transfer from a Horizontal-vertical Discrimination to a Brightness Discrimination in the Rat

Abstract

Eight rats were trained on a discrimination between horizontal and vertical striations, and subsequently between black and white vertical striations. Subjects originally trained with horizontal positive preferred black to white and subjects trained with vertical positive preferred white to black. The present note reports briefly on a transfer effect in rats, observed incidentally in an experiment designed for a different purpose. The rats were trained in a jumping stand to discriminate between horizontal and vertical striations, and when training was complete, were tested on a brightness discrimination.