Domestication, sophistication, and avoidance in Norway rats.

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Abstract
Administered successive 1-way and 2-way avoidance tasks which included treatments of postweaning handling to docility, prior learning sophistication, and differential shock intensity. In this 2-stage paradigm, with 32 wild and 32 hooded Long-Evans rats, escape and avoidance behaviors of wild and laboratory Ss were indistinguishable. Sophistication in laboratory-learning experience and high shock contributed significantly to the performance of both wild and domestic Ss in 1-way, but not 2-way, avoidance. In contrast, effects of handling were apparently negligible. Findings do not support the notion of degeneracy of learning ability in the domesticated rat. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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