Avoidance and Maze Learning in Pigs

Abstract

An experiment involving 120 pigs, with four pigs randomly selected from each of 30 litters, was conducted to determine the relationship between avoidance learning and water-maze learning, and to determine which pattern or patterns in a water-maze would reflect maximum differences in learning ability. Decreases in total errors and total latency indicated learning occurred on the non-alternating patterns. Significant correlations were observed among avoidance learning criteria and among water-maze learning criteria, but no significant correlations were observed between avoidance learning and maze learning criteria. Because of this correlation pattern two principal components were identified; one principal component was identified as a measure of avoidance learning ability and a second principal component was identified as a measure of water-maze learning ability.