Abstract
In order to assess the abilities of two California sea lions to generalize an identity concept, both animals were taught a two-choice, visual matching-to-sample task. We hypothesized that initial identity-matching problems would be learned as conditional (if...then) discriminations but that an identity concept would emerge after training numerous exemplars of identity matching. After training with 15 two-stimulus identity matching-to-sample problems, transfer tests consisting of 15 novel problems were given to the animals. Pass-fail criteria were defined in terms of performance on Trial 1 of each test problem, performance on test trials compared with baseline trials, and performance on four-trial problem blocks. One sea lion passed on the second transfer test and the other passed on the third; both demonstrated successful generalization of an identity concept by all criteria used. A second experiment consisted of presentation of stimuli previously learned in a different context (arbitrary matching-to-sample). Both subjects immediately applied an identity concept to accurately solve these new problems. These tests conclusively demonstrate transfer of an identity matching rule in California sea lions.
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The experiments and preparation of this manuscript were financially supported by grants from the Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-85-K-0244) and the Center for Field Research (Earmwatch) to R.J.S. The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable assistance of Earthwatch and student volunteers in designing stimuli and conducting experiments. We would also like to thank Brigit Grimm and Michel Coulliais for help in the experimental design, and Colleen Re-ichmuth for helpful criticisms of an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Kastak, D., Schusterman, R.J. Transfer of visual identity matching-to-sample in two california sea lions (zalophus californianus). Animal Learning & Behavior 22, 427–435 (1994). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209162
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209162