Early experience in domestication.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Conducted 2 experiments to assess the ontogenetic as well as phylogenetic influences of early experience on domestication. A total of 40 Long-Evans hooded and 32 Sprague-Dawley albino domestic rats and 72 1st generation, laboratory-reared wild rats were the Ss. Exp I was a factorial, reciprocal cross-foster study. Exp II was a factorial assessment of the combined effects of preweaning handling and postweaning enriched environments. These experiments on rat domestication show that preweaning handling had a strong influence on the ontogenetic development of the S in terms of reduced emotionality. Handled wild Ss became much more like domestic Ss in their behavior. This finding for handling contrasted with minimal effects for cross-fostering and enriched environments. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: