An analysis of leg position learning in the cockroach yoked control

John F. Disterhoft*, Rita Haggerty, W. C. Corning

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

It has been observed that cockroaches serving as yoked controls to animals learning a leg flexion, take longer to acquire the leg flexion in a subsequent training session. The hypothesis that the longer acquisition is caused by random associations between the leg position and the shock during the yoked treatment has been confirmed. A group receiving shock with the leg extended performed best on retest; a group that received shock with leg flexion was worse than the leg extended group but better than a third group that had random associations between leg position and shock.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)359-362
Number of pages4
JournalPhysiology and Behavior
Volume7
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1971

Funding

The initial experimental animal population consisted of 49 adult male and female cockroaches, Periplaneta americana. Of these, 19 were discarded: 6 were damaged during fixation and 13 were not used because they were inactive at XThis research was supported by an NDEA Title 1V fellowship granted to J. Disterhoft and NASA grant 33-012-009 to W. C. Coming. ~Present Address: Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. aPresent Address: Division of Biopsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Keywords

  • Cockroach learning
  • Response competition
  • Yoked control learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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