Summary
Several operant conditioning procedures have been successfully used with the green crab, Carcinus maenas. Animals learned to press a bar for food reward and showed high rates of responding on a continuous reinforcement schedule or on a fixed ratio 2 schedule (every other response reinforced). Animals on a variable time schedule showed lower rates of responding. Crabs readily learned a spatial discrimination task in which one bar causes food to be dispensed (S+) and one is inactive (S-). The eye elevation system of the green crab can also be used in a yoked procedure using air puff to the eye as punishment. Master animals reduced the number of eye elevations after reflex withdrawal and showed longer latency compared to yoked controls. A delay introduced between response and punishment reduced the suppressing effect of the punishment.
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Abramson, C.I., Feinman, R.D. (1990). Operant Conditioning in the Crab. In: Wiese, K., Krenz, WD., Tautz, J., Reichert, H., Mulloney, B. (eds) Frontiers in Crustacean Neurobiology. Advances in Life Sciences. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-5689-8_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-5689-8_24
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