How different are operant and classical conditioning at the flight simulator?
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CONTRIBUTORS:
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CONFERENCE NAME:
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CONF. LOCATION:
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None
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CONFERENCE YEAR:
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1998
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PUB TYPE:
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Conference Presentation
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SUBJECT(S):
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Neuroethology, Neuroscience, behavior, Neurobiology, learning and memory
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DISCIPLINE:
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Biology
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HTTP:
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LANGUAGE:
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English
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PUB ID:
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103-426-018
(Last edited on
2006/04/13 06:06:49 GMT-6)
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SPONSOR(S):
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ABSTRACT:
Classical conditioning is often described as the transfer of the response-eliciting property of a stimulus to a new stimulus without that property. In contrast, the processes underlying operant conditioning may be diverse and are still poorly understood. Drosophila can be conditioned classically or operantly to avoid certain orientations in the flight simulator. To reach the same performance, more reinforcement is required during classical than during operant training. We considered the possibility that classically trained animals might use their naive behavioral repertoire to express learning performance while animals that are allowed to control the reinforcer during operant training may refine their behavioral strategies. However, an extensive comparison of flight behavior after operant and classical training did not reveal such a difference. We therefore proposed, that operant behavior facilitates the transfer from the unconditioned to the conditioned stimulus. To further characterize the facilitating influence of operant behavior, we take advantage of a second form of operant conditioning in the flight simulator set-up called "switching". In this mode, the fly can choose with its yaw torque between two pattern orientations or two colors, one being associated with the reinforcer (heat). The fly quickly learns to avoid the high temperature and keeps that behavioral bias after the heat is permanently switched off. To test for the transfer from unconditioned to conditioned stimulus, we train the fly in one mode and test its learning performance in the other one. Interestingly, transfer is observed only if flies are trained in the switching and tested in the flight simulator mode but not with the reverse sequence. We conclude that during operant conditioning classical transfer between unconditioned and conditioned stimulus is facilitated and that this transfer is revealed only in flight simulator mode.
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