Overtraining and Transfer within and between Dimensions in the Rat

Abstract

Although reversal learning in the rat is normally assisted by overtraining, it seems that transfer to a new discrimination in a different stimulus dimension is not. This effect is confirmed in the present experiment, even though the stimuli of the second problem had been present (and necessarily attended to) in the first problem. This result is taken to show that the effects of overtraining cannot be accounted for by supposing that it strengthens an overt orienting response of the animal. A second group of rats was run to show that transfer to a second discrimination problem within the same dimension as the first is facilitated by overtraining. The important variable, therefore, that determines the direction of the effect of overtraining on transfer between problems, is the relationship between the stimulus dimensions concerned.