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Maternal and infantile influences upon exploratory behavior and emotional reactivity in the albino rat
Author(s) -
Porter Richard H.,
Wehmer Francine
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420020106
Subject(s) - offspring , pregnancy , psychology , open field , developmental psychology , emotionality , defecation , exploratory research , physiology , medicine , biology , psychiatry , sociology , anthropology , genetics
A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted to investigate the combined effects of maternal infantile handling, maternal pregnancy (offspring pre‐natal) stress, and offspring infantile handling on adult open‐field behavior and weight of albino rats. The primary results are as follows: ( 1 ) both offspring infantile handling and maternal pregnancy stress tend to increase adult exploratory behavior; ( 2 ) adult weight was lower for subjects whose mother had undergone stress during pregnancy than for offspring of non‐stress females; ( 3 ) several 2‐way interactions were found to significantly influence open‐field exploration; ( 4 ) when offspring infantile handling was combined with maternal pregnancy stress, emotional reactivity (i.e., defecation) was found to increase significantly over that following either type of stimulation alone.