TRANSFER OF VISUAL AND HAPTIC MAZE-LEARNING IN RATS

Cross-modal transfer of learning between black/white and rough/smooth discrimination tasks was studied in a two-choice maze procedure in which the stimuli for both discriminations were located on the floor of the maze. Rats were trained initially with cues of one modality and then given transfer training with cues of the second modality. The amount of transfer produced by two criteria of learning, 9 correct responses in 10 trials and 18 correct responses in 20 trials, was also studied. Bidirectional cross-modal transfer of learning was demonstrated more clearly with the more stringent learning criteria. These positive transfer effects appeared primarily to be the result of general transfer processes.