Overtraining, Transfer to Proprioceptive Control and Position Reversal

Abstract

If rats are overtrained on a visual discrimination they generally learn the reversal of the discrimination faster than non-overtrained rats. In position discriminations, however, this effect does not generally hold—indeed several investigators have found overtraining to retard position reversal. One of the important differences between the two types of problem seems to be the presence of irrelevant cues in visual discriminations, and their absence in position discriminations. It is suggested that a second important feature of position discriminations is that overtraining usually causes control of the maze running habit to be transferred from external to proprioceptive stimuli, and that successful reversal cannot normally occur until external control is re-established. In two experiments a study by Krechevsky and Honzik (1932) is repeated with certain modifications, with results that support this hypothesis; and a third experiment provides direct evidence of transfer to proprioceptive control in a T-maze. It is shown that this analysis will explain the apparently conflicting results of all recent position reversal experiments.