Long-Term Retention of Visual Tasks by Two Species of Emydid Turtles, Pseudemys nelsoni and Trachemys scripta.
Long-lived species are expected to have long-term memory capabilities. In this study we tested nine Florida Red-bellied Cooters (Pseudemys nelsoni) on their retention for both a procedural food acquisition task and visual discrimination task learned in a previous experiment. The turtles were tested...
| Published in: | Journal of Comparative Psychology Vol. 126; no. 3; pp. 213 - 224 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
American Psychological Association
Aug2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=79369631&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 79369631 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 07357036 JCY jtl: Journal of Comparative Psychology issn: 07357036 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2012 vid: 126 iid: 3 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 79369631 10.1037/a0027827 ppf: 213 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: Long-Term Retention of Visual Tasks by Two Species of Emydid Turtles, Pseudemys nelsoni and Trachemys scripta. aug: au: Davis, Karen M. Burghardt, Gordon M. affil: 569 Dabney Hall, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville su: Behaviorism (Psychology) Cognitive ability Visual discrimination Psychology of learning Animal models in research Long-term memory sug: subj: Behaviorism (Psychology) Cognitive ability Visual discrimination Psychology of learning Animal models in research Long-term memory keyword: behavior learning long-term retention reptiles turtles behavior learning long-term retention reptiles turtles ab: Long-lived species are expected to have long-term memory capabilities. In this study we tested nine Florida Red-bellied Cooters (Pseudemys nelsoni) on their retention for both a procedural food acquisition task and visual discrimination task learned in a previous experiment. The turtles were tested and retrained after two months, after another 7.5 months, and finally after 36 months of no interaction with the test apparatus during the intervening periods. Turtles retained memory for the choice task and needed little retraining throughout. Furthermore, in a different visual discrimination task, both P. nelsoni and Trachemys scripta turtles showed 100% retention after 3.5 months of no testing. Odor-controlled tests confirmed that turtles were using visual cues to solve the task. Thus, in a laboratory context turtles demonstrate long-term memory of visual discrimination tasks, which relates to apparent abilities in natural environments. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|