Auditory targeting reflexes: Their determining role in directional instrumental responding

Abstract

Two groups of normal dogs have been trained in a task involving one directional alimentary response signalled by the auditory cue. The cue was spatially contiguous with response in one group, and spatially discontiguous in the other. Both groups did not differ in the acquisition rate. However, as it was demonstrated in the test trials, the response of the first group was determined by the location of the cue and not by its auditory quality, while the response of the second group was based on the auditory pattern of the cue and not on its location. On this basis it may be concluded, that depending on stimulus-response spatial contiguity, different properties of an auditory stimulus play a determining role in the performance of directional response. These results support earlier anatomical and electrophysiological data pointing out to the two divisions within the auditory system, one involved in localization and another in pattern recognition of the auditory cue. The difference in the determining role of these two aspects of the auditory cue is also discussed with regard to the system of targeting reflexes, elaborated in Konorski's "Integrative activity of the brain".