Effects of Situational Complexity and Repeated Testing on Rats' Behaviour in a Light-dark Preference Situation
- 26 April 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Zeitschrift Fur Tierpsychologie
- Vol. 44 (2) , 148-153
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1977.tb00989.x
Abstract
The hypothesis that the rats initial activity in a novel situation represents escape tendencies rather than exploratory behavior was tested. Male albino rats (30) were handled when 90 days old, another 30 rats remained undisturbed. All the animals were given 7 trials in a light-dark preference situation. For half of the animals the lighted part contained additional stimuli. Although activity was high, rats did not investigate these stimuli in the 1st trials. This result seems to favor the escape hypothesis.This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- The influence of adult handling and social isolation on dark preference in albino ratsAnimal Behaviour, 1974
- Effects of weaning age and adult handling on avoidance conditioning, open-field behavior, and plasma corticosterone of adult ratsBehavioral Biology, 1973
- Effects of repeated testing on rats' locomotor activity in the open-fieldAnimal Behaviour, 1973
- PEN‐FIELD BEHAVIOUR IN RATS: EFFECTS OF HANDLING, SEX AND REPEATED TESTINGBritish Journal of Psychology, 1972
- Rats’ performance on repeated tests in the open field as a function of agePsychonomic Science, 1971
- Infantile stimulation and adult exploratory behaviour in the rat: Effects of handling upon visual variation-seekingAnimal Behaviour, 1967
- Two independent behavioral dimensions in open-field performance.Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1967
- Effects of Different Intensities of Postweaning Shock and Handling on the Albino RatThe Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1965
- Escape, exploratory, and food-seeking responses of rats in a novel situation.Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1959