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Susceptibility of artificially reared rat pups to social influences on food choice
Author(s) -
Galef Bennett G.,
Smith Michael A.
Publication year - 1994
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.420270202
Subject(s) - social isolation , preference , psychology , food preference , social relation , laboratory rat , developmental psychology , isolation (microbiology) , biology , zoology , endocrinology , social psychology , food science , microbiology and biotechnology , economics , psychotherapist , microeconomics
Using techniques developed by Hall (1975) and modified by Diaz (1991), we maintained rat pups in total social isolation from the time they were 2 or 3 days of age until they were 42 days old. We found that rat pups reared in social isolation exhibited susceptibility to social enhancement of food preference indistinguishable from that exhibited by normally reared rat pups. These data suggest that development of a tendency to use conspecifics as sources of information about what foods to eat does not depend upon previous experience either of interaction with conspecifics or of feeding in social situations.© 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.