Abstract
Free-running spontaneous alternation refers to the animal’s tendency to prefer the least recently visited locations in successive spatial choices, which is attributed to the animals’ choice between stimuli based on prior experience. Turn alternation, which is observed in directional choices preceded by a forced turn in one direction, also reflects the animals’ tendency to alternate between directional choices but this tendency has been assumed to rely on other cues (e.g., proprioceptive cues) derived from the prior responses (e.g., forced turn in one direction). Based on previous studies, the turn alternation appears to rely on more primitive (lower-form) information features and to be a more frequently observed empirical phenomenon than the spontaneous alternation. We investigated these two behavioral alternation tendencies in Artemia sp. Experiment 1 tested the continuous spontaneous alternation (cSAB) performance of Artemia sp. in two different mazes: t-maze (three options) and plus maze (four options). Experiment 2 tested the turn alternation performance of Artemia sp. counter-balancing the direction of initial forced-turn between subjects. Our results showed that Artemia sp. had nearly chance level spontaneous alternation performance in the t-maze and plus maze whereas a higher than chance level turn alternation performance. These results support the ubiquity of turn alternation tendency across species and point at the lack of spontaneous alternation in Artemia sp.
Highlights
Free-running spontaneous alternation refers to the animal’s tendency to prefer the least recently visited locations in successive spatial choices, which is attributed to the animals’ choice between stimuli based on prior experience
Note that the number of subjects that met the minimum ten arm visit criterion was higher for this second set of analysis. These results suggest that Artemia sp. did not exhibit spontaneous alternation tendency
Our results revealed that Artemia sp. had nearly chance level continuous SAB (cSAB) performance when tested in the T-maze, significantly lower than or chance level cSAB performance when tested in the plus maze, and a significantly higher than chance level turn alternation performance when forced to turn in one direction prior to the freechoice point
Summary
Free-running spontaneous alternation refers to the animal’s tendency to prefer the least recently visited locations in successive spatial choices, which is attributed to the animals’ choice between stimuli based on prior experience. Many species of animals exhibit a tendency to alternate between different locations and prefer the least recently visited place even in the absence of differential reinforcement of this pattern of responding (Balcı, Ramey-Balcı, & Ruamps, 2014; Ramey, Teichman, Oleksiak, & Balci, 2009; Still, 1966; Schultz, 1964; Wayner & Zellner, 1958) This behavioral policy is referred to as spontaneous alternation behavior (SAB), and it is assumed to be adaptive for the organisms in their natural environments in terms of exploration, foraging, and avoidance of predators (Hughes, 1990; Richman, Dember, & Kim, 1986). We instead aimed to test the generalizability and the comparison of two different forms of alternation tendency in a Genus that has a different mode of movement (e.g., compared to isopods), live in a peculiar habitat (e.g., low competition and predation), and that was not studied before in this particular experimental setting
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