Abstract
Considerable research has been done recently on the transfer of learned responses between animals by injections of brain materials. Studies in this area have varied greatly in the efficacy of their control procedures. In Exp. 1, 48 rats received injections of brain material from like-trained, opposite-trained, or untrained rats, and 16 rats served as uninjected controls. All Ss were trained on an operant brightness discrimination. No evidence of any effect of brain injections on learning was found. In Exp. 2, 30 rats were tested for activity level, food intake, and water intake for 6 days before and 6 days after receiving injections of brain homogenates from trained or untrained rats, or of saline placebo. Transitory depressions of activity and food intake occurred post-injection, probably due to illness. These results question the generality of the transfer effect for visual problems and suggest a need to re-evaluate some of the earlier positive results.
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