ELEMENTAL AND CONFIGURAL LEARNING AND THE PERCEPTION OF ODORANT MIXTURES BY THE SPINY LOBSTER PANULIRUS-ARGUS

The present study used a conditioning assay to investigate if the type of learning task that spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) were required to perform influenced the way that they perceived odorant mixtures. Mi xtures were composed of 2 food-related compounds (adenosine-5'-monopho sphate, betaine, or L-glutamate) at concentrations that produced the s ame duration of searching behavior in unconditioned animals. Aversive conditioning of search behavior coupled with generalization testing wa s used to evaluate perceptual similarity between related mixtures. Whe n animals were conditioned to stop searching to a binary mixture AX, t hey did not generalize significantly from this mixture to either of it s components (A or X), or to a binary mixture containing one novel com ponent (AY). However, when lobsters were conditioned to avoid AX but t o continue responding to AY, they generalized between AX and X and bet ween AY and Y. The results support the hypothesis that altering the sa lience of a mixture's components by giving them different reinforcemen t contingencies changed the way that the mixtures were perceived. As a result of such conditioning, animals perceived the mixture's componen ts as separate elements, rather than as a configuration, and, as a con sequence, animals generalized between binary mixtures and their most s alient or predictive components. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.