Relationism

An attempt was made to investigate the abstract concept
of relation. It was hypothesized that the learning of the
relational concept independent of particular stimuli or
dimensions is possible even in nonverbal animals. One group
of rats was trained on a discrimination that could only be
solved with relational learning; a second group of rats was
trained on a discrimination that could be solved only with
absolute learning. Both groups were then trained on a
discrimination that could be learned in either a relational
or absolute manner, and transposition testing was done to
determine the method utilized. Results indicated animals with original relational
learning solved the second discrimination relationally;
animal s with original specific learning solved the second
discrimination in an absolute manner.