Article
Classical conditioning of red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus
Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society
(2005)
Abstract
We examined associative learning as it relates to the sensory ecology of the red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus, using a classical conditioning design to evaluate the response of salamanders to different kinds of stimuli. Conditioned stimuli (CS) reflected visual, chemosensory, and mechanosensory modalities of P. cinereus, with brief exposures to (I) white light, (II) acetic acid fumes, (III) low-frequency sound, and (IV) low-frequency vibration. In all experiments, a gentle mechanical stimulation of the tail served as the unconditioned stimulus (US), which consistently elicited movement of the head or body as the unconditioned response (UR). For two days, the US and CS were temporally unpaired, whereas the CS was presented 5 s before the US on the following three days. When low-frequency sound and vibration were used as the CS, conditioned salamanders exhibited significantly higher responses to the CS after training than controls in which the US and CS were never paired. The results for white light and acetic acid as the CS, however, were equivocal. These results suggest that substrate borne vibration, including sonic energy transduced through substrate, is a particularly relevant cue for learning in P. cinereus.
Keywords
- learning,
- plethodon,
- plethodontidae,
- salamander behavior,
- animal learning,
- classical conditioning
Disciplines
Publication Date
2005
Citation Information
Scott Kight. "Classical conditioning of red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus" Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society Vol. 41 (2005) p. 68 - 84 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/scott-kight/12/