An analysis of serial pattern learning by rats

Abstract

When rats receive a sequence of rewards of different magnitudes for traversing a runway, they learn to “track” the sequence, showing anticipation of the forthcoming reward by appropriate running speed. There is disagreement as to whether this behavior depends on rats’ encoding and recalling a complete sequence of foregoing hedonic events or just the immediately preceding one. The present experiments showed that rats can remember more hedonic events than the most recent one. In Experiment 1, when exposed concurrently to the sequences 10-1-0 (pellets) and 0-1-10, they were faster on Run 3 of the increasing than of the decreasing sequence, a discrimination which cannot be made on the basis of the preceding (1-pellet) reward alone. Experiment 2 showed that this behavior reflects genuine anticipation of the Run 3 reward, not simultaneous contrast or other simple aftereffects of Runs 1 and 2. It is argued, however, that these results, together with related findings by Capaldi and Verry (1981), show merely that rats can recall a hedonic event other than the most recent one, not that a sequence of such events is fully recalled in order.