OBSERVATIONAL-LEARNING OF DURATION DISCRIMINATION IN RATS (RATTUS-NORVEGICUS)

Hungry 'observer' rats watched at trained conspecific 'demonstrators' performing a duration discrimination (1 vs. 8 s sound) before being th emselves exposed to the same task. Performance of 'observer' rats was compared with that of naive control rats who learned the same task wit hout observing a demonstrator. Statistical analysis showed that observ ing a trained demonstrator significantly contributed to the rapid disc overy of the relationship between a particular duration and its relate d response patterns or stimuli, increasing learning speed with regard to the control animals. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.