Two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins were tested with
2 simultaneous sound stimuli as discriminanda in successive reversal
training (SRT) and discrimination learning set (DLS) paradigms.
The first S was tested in the order SRT-DLS, and the second in the
order DLS-SRT. Both demonstrated progressive improvement over successive
reversals under SRT, with the DLS-SRT S showing fewer errors per
reversal and achieving almost twice as many reversals within the
fixed number of trials given. Although neither S clearly formed
a discrimination learning set within the 180 different auditory
problems administered, there was evidence that the prior SRT experience
of one S facilitated some aspects of its subsequent DLS performance.
The failure in DLS was discussed in terms of the marginal levels
of within problem learning evidenced.
Beach, F. A. III. and Herman, L. M. (1972). Preliminary studies
of auditory problem solving and intertask transfer by the bottlenose
dolphin. The Psychological Record, 22, 49-62.
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