Symbolic, identity and probe delayed matching of sounds by the
bottlenosed dolphin
- Herman, L. M. and Thompson, R. K. R.
©1982 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
The short term memory for sounds of the bottlenosed
dolphin was tested using symbolic identity and probe forms of the
delayed matching to sample (DMS) task. The forms differed in the
number (one or two) or nature (symbolic or identity matches of sample
sounds) of postdelay test stimuli available as memory retrieval
cues. Although symbolic DMS was difficult to learn, the final performance
level was approximately equal to that for identity or probe DMS.
On all tasks, the dolphin’s responses were above 80% correct
through to delays of 90 sec and, in some cases, through to delays
of 180 and 240 sec, the ‘limits’ being governed mainly
by the dolphin’s reluctance to continue being tested at long
delays. Encoding of sample stimuli into their learned symbolic representation
was hypothesized to have reduced symbolic DMS to a recognition memory
task, resulting in the observed equivalence of performance with
the other two showed no significant proactive interference effects
from samples of prior trials. Instead, proactive interference was
traceable to the probe value of the prior trial. Overall, the auditory
DMS data for the dolphin were functionally similar to results reported
for monkeys tested on symbolic, identity and probe visual DMS tasks.
Herman, L. M. and Thompson, R. K. R. (1982) Symbolic, identity,
and probe delayed matching of sounds by the bottlenosed dolphin. Animal Learning and Behavior, 10, 22-34
Back to Top
Dolphin
Programs | Whale
Programs | Education
Programs | Our Research
| Resource Guide
Copyright © 2002, The Dolphin Institute
|
