<p>In Pavlonian (classical) conditioning,  conditioned responses of an animal may vary. Some animals focus on the unconditioned stimulus (ie. food/location of food) while others may focus on the conditioned stimulus (ie. lever or button). These behaviors have been termed 'goal-tracking' and 'sign-tracking' respectively, as defined by Flagel et al. (2007).</p>

<ul>
<li>What are some known examples of this variation between different species?</li>
<li>How does the variation within a species differ across species? Do some species exhibit more or less variation than other species?</li>
</ul>

<p><sub>
Flagel SB, Watson SJ, Robinson TE, Akil H. (2007). <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16972103" rel="noreferrer">Individual differences in the propensity to approach signals vs goals promote different adaptations in the dopamine system of rats.</a> Psychopharmacology, Vol. 191, No. 3. (April 2007), pp. 599-607, doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0535-8 (<a href="http://sitemaker.umich.edu/terryrobinson/files/flagel_07.pdf" rel="noreferrer">free PDF</a>)
</sub></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-22T15:34:56.423Z
Your question title is sorta asking two questions (examples + variance) but your question body only asks about variance; are you only interested in variation within/across species?
Zelda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-12T21:02:56.737Z
@BenBrocka In each species there is some variation. What I am interested in is how that variation itself differs between different species. I have a bit of trouble wording that, but hope it makes sense.
Vielle
<animal-cognition><behaviorism><reinforcement-learning><conditioning>
How does goal-tracking and sign-tracking behaviour vary across species?
Vielle
# How does goal-tracking and sign-tracking behaviour vary across species?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-01-31)

In Pavlonian (classical) conditioning, conditioned responses of an animal may vary. Some animals focus on the unconditioned stimulus (ie. food/location of food) while others may focus on the conditioned stimulus (ie. lever or button). These behaviors have been termed 'goal-tracking' and 'sign-tracking' respectively, as defined by Flagel et al. (2007).

* What are some known examples of this variation between different species?
* How does the variation within a species differ across species? Do some species exhibit more or less variation than other species?

Flagel SB, Watson SJ, Robinson TE, Akil H. (2007). [Individual differences in the propensity to approach signals vs goals promote different adaptations in the dopamine system of rats.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16972103) Psychopharmacology, Vol. 191, No. 3. (April 2007), pp. 599-607, doi:10.1007/s00213-006-0535-8 ([free PDF](http://sitemaker.umich.edu/terryrobinson/files/flagel_07.pdf))

**Tags:** animal-cognition, behaviorism, reinforcement-learning, conditioning

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Your question title is sorta asking two questions (examples + variance) but your question body only asks about variance; are you only interested in variation within/across species?  
> **username_0**: @BenBrocka In each species there is some variation. What I am interested in is how that variation itself differs between different species. I have a bit of trouble wording that, but hope it makes sense.  

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## 0 answers

