Efeitos da topografia da resposta sobre a resolução de problemas do tipo Insight em ratos

Abstract

The Experimental Analysis of Behavior investigates parametric variables of the behavioral history of an organism that could explain the occurrence of creative behavior (Insight), i.e. a novel sudden behavior as a result from the combination of previous abilities from the organism's repertoire. This study investigated the task of pushing a cube, climbing onto the cube and pulling a chain (on this sequence) on Rattus norvegicus and tested the effects of two different topographies of the response of pushing a cube (pushing the cube with paws and pushing the cube with the head) and the transfer of stimulus control function in training situation (spot) on the response of pushing the cube to the test situation (chain). Six rats were randomly distributed under the following experimental conditions: push the cube with the paws / pull the spot; push the cube with the paws/ sniff the spot; push the cube with the paws / no contact with the spot and push the cube with the head / pull the spot. The test consisted of driving a cube down a chain, climbing the cube and pulling the chain. Data indicated that both topographies of the pushing response enabled the resolution of the problem. However, it was observed that pushing the cube with the paws allowed a greater number of Insight responses and closer responses that lead to the problem resolution because this topography allowed the subject to look at the chain while pushing the cube, obtaining greater precision in the positioning of the cube under the chain. Spot training has shown that more effective than teaching the animal to push at a specific stimulus would be to encourage the animal to explore more of the environment to find the most relevant stimulus.