Investigando a formação de classes funcionais em cães e ratos

Abstract

This study aimed to install a repertoire adequate to the class formation of olfactory stimuli in three domestic dogs through training repeated yoked reversals of simple discriminations in three phases: (1) with two stimuli (2) in pairs with two sets of stimuli, and (3) with four stimuli. The subjects learned the tasks in Phases 1 and 2, and two of them showed learning set of the task in Phase 1; but none responded in a way befitting the formation of classes. It is argued that the requirement to discriminating four stimuli in the same trial may have disrupted training, and a new study is suggested to deal with this difficulty.