Child Development · 1965 · 71 citations · 14 references
Social SciencesBehavioral SciencesPsychologyAnimal BehaviorDevelopmental PsychologyExperimental PsychologyAnimal CognitionBehavioral DevelopmentDevelopmental Behavioral NeuroscienceLearning In AnimalsMemory In AnimalsOperant ConditioningAnimal Models Of BehaviorBehavioral Assessment In OffspringBehavioral AvoidanceDevelopmental LearningInfant LearningOpen-field TestReversal LearningRodent Learning
Groups of kittens were handled for 5 min. per day from birth through 45 days, placed in a complex free environment for 5 hr. a day from 46 to 90 days of age, or subjected toboth or neither of these treatments. Kittens handled in infancy approached strange toys and humans more readily and required more trials to learn an active-avoidance response than kittens that were not handled. Subjects that were exposed to the complex environment made significantly fewer errors in the Hebb-Williams maze and were more active in initial testing in an open field. No significant differences among the groups were observed on 15 of 16 measures of activity nor in discrimination or reversal learning. The results from cats appeared to be generally similar to those obtained from rats subjected to similar treatments. Some difficulties were discussed that were encountered in attempting to generalize the results of experiments on infantile stimulation across species and treatments.
14
The effects of early experience on problem-solving at maturity
Do Hebb · American Psychologist · 1947 · 424 citations