The development of adaptive responses to novel situations via learning has been demonstrated in a wide variety of animal taxa. However, knowledge on the learning abilities of one of the oldest extant vertebrate groups, Chondrichthyes, remains limited. With the increasing interest in global wildlife tourism and shark feeding operations, it is important to understand the capacities of these animals to form associations between human activities and food. We used an operant conditioning regime with a simple spatial cognitive task to investigate the effects of reinforcement frequency and reward magnitude on the learning performance and memory retention of Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni). Twenty-four Port Jackson sharks were assigned one of four treatments differing in reward magnitude and reinforcement frequency (large magnitude–high frequency; large magnitude–low frequency; small magnitude–high frequency; small magnitude–low frequency). The sharks were trained over a 21-day period to compare the number of days that it took to learn to pass an assigned door to feed. Sharks trained at a high reinforcement frequency demonstrated faster learning rates and a higher number of passes through the correct door at the end of the trials, while reward magnitude had limited effects on learning rate. This suggests that a reduction in reinforcement frequency during tourism-related feeding operations is likely to be more effective in reducing the risk of sharks making associations with food than limiting the amount of food provided.

中文翻译：

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奖励幅度和训练频率对杰克逊港鲨鱼Heterodontus portusjacksoni的学习率和记忆力的影响。

通过学习动物对新情况的适应性反应的发展已在多种动物分类中得到证明。但是，关于现存的最古老的脊椎动物群之一的软骨鱼类的学习能力的知识仍然有限。随着对全球野生动植物旅游业和鲨鱼饲养活动的兴趣日益浓厚，重要的是要了解这些动物在人类活动与食物之间形成联系的能力。我们使用具有简单空间认知任务的操作条件条件来研究强化频率和奖励幅度对杰克逊港鲨鱼（Heterodontus portusjacksoni）学习成绩和记忆力保持的影响）。为二十四只杰克逊港鲨鱼分配了奖励幅度和强化频率不同的四种处理方法之一（大幅度-高频；大幅度-低频；小幅度-高频；小幅度-低频）。对鲨鱼进行了为期21天的培训，以比较学习通过指定的门进食所需的天数。在训练结束时，以高加固频率训练的鲨鱼显示出更快的学习速度和通过正确门的次数，而奖励幅度对学习速度的影响有限。这表明，在减少与旅游相关的进食过程中，加固频率的降低可能比限制提供的食物数量更有效地降低了鲨鱼与食物发生关联的风险。