[Complex alimentary motor conditioned reflex reactions in cats and dogs]. / Slozhnye uslovnoreflektornye pishchevye dvigatel'nye reaktsii u koshek i sobak

The ability of animals to perform a complex motor task representing a model of compensatory discrete tracing was investigated in dogs and cats. Elongation of a light spot on an oscilloscope screen into a vertical line served as a signal of motor reaction. The reaction consisted in several movements, each of which reduced the initial signal change by 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 or 1/5 of its value. Alimentary reinforcement was given only after a reduction of the signal to its initial level. Signals with a different number of steps of transition to their initial state were presented at random. It was found that learned animals were capable of a stable behaviour of a compensatory discrete tracing type. A hypothesis has been advanced about a probabilistic participation of visual control in the realization of tracing motor behaviour.

[The latent period of a conditioned motor reaction in dogs and cats]. / O latentnom periode uslovnoi dvigatel'noi reaktsii u sobak i koshek

A study was made of the temporal characteristics of motor reactions in cats and dogs to an instantaneous change in the shape of a photic signal. The latency value is an individual characteristic of the animal; it undergoes only slight fluctuations on different experimental days. No influence has been found of the intersignal interval magnitude (8--70 sec) on the duration of latencies. Longer experiment (about 300 signals in three hours) leads to longer latencies and their greater variability.