Subject Area
Psychology
Description
Margaret Low ’24, Majors: Psychology and Health Policy and Management
Jose Pena ’25, Major: Neuroscience, Minor: Physics
Shelby Bawden ’23, Majors: Biology and Psychology, neuroscience certificate
Laura Betances ’25, Major: Biology
Tess Cody ’25, Majors: Neuroscience and English
Rachael Layden ’23, Major: Psychology
Christopher Walsh ’23, Majors: Biology and Psychology, neuroscience certificate
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Victoria Templer, Psychology
Transitive inference (TI) is a form of deductive reasoning where once stimulus pairs are learned (A>B; B>C), it can be inferred that A>C. Studies evaluating TI in rodents are limited. Ten male Long-Evans rats were trained to discriminate four overlapping stimulus (odor) pairs (A+B-; B+C-; C+D-; D+E-; list 1). After reaching criterion on adjacent stimulus pairs, rats received non-differentially reinforced probe trials of non-adjacent stimulus pairs (e.g., B, D) to determine the extent to which rats responded based on inferred order or associative value. Rats were then trained on a second list (F>G>H>I>J) using the same procedure with the exception that specific odors were consistently presented in unique spatial locations to increase premise pair acquisition. Most subjects selected B significantly more than D, and this effect was stronger in the second list, suggesting use of implied order rather than associative value. To further examine if implied order controlled choice rather than associative value, list-linking procedures (E>F) were conducted to prompt construction a ten-item list (A>B>C>D>E>F>G>H>I>J). Between list probes (e.g., BI, CH, DG) accuracy will be discussed to determine if associative value or inferred order controlled choice as linking cannot be explained by associate values.
Publisher
Providence College
Type
Poster
Date
4-26-2023
Format
Text
Language
English
