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Table 1. Optimized design and schedule for our visual transitive inference touchscreen task in mice

From: Mutations in neuroligin-3 in male mice impact behavioral flexibility but not relational memory in a touchscreen test of visual transitive inference

Stage

Design

Trials/session

Performance criterion

Training stage 1:

Stimulus exposure

Exposure to all stimulus pairs to facilitate flexibility: 1 session of each stimulus pair in order: A+B−; B+C−; C+D−; D+E−

52 trials/session; Total 4 sessions

None

Training stage 2: Premise stimulus pair learning

Learning each pairwise discrimination to criterion in order: A+B−; B+C−; C+D−; D+E−

52 trials/session; until criterion

≥ 41/52 correct (79% accuracy) in a session, plus one of the two previous or successive sessions at ≥ 34/52 correct (≥ 65% accuracy)

Training stage 3:

Serial integration

All stimulus pairs presented in serial order: A+ B−; B+ C−; C+ D−; D+ E− then sequence repeated with 13 trials of each pair presented within a session

52 trials/session; until criterion

≥ 37/52 correct (≥ 70% accuracy) in a session or max. 15 sessions (780 trials)

Training stage 4: Pseudorandom integration

All stimulus pairs (A+B−; B+C−; C+D-; D+E−) presented in pseudorandom order with 13 trials of each pair presented within a session

52 trials/session; until criterion

≥ 37/52 correct (≥ 70% accuracy) in a session or max. 15 sessions (780 trials)

Transitive Inference Test

20 unrewarded trials each of novel pairs AE and BD; 8 trials each of the learned pairs (A+B−, B+C−, C+D−, D+E−); all pairs presented in pseudorandom order within a session

72 trials/session; 1 session

None