The appearance of nail-biting in a rat; a fixation in a frustrating problem situation.

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Abstract
A nail biting reaction is described as it developed in an adult [male] rat during the presentation of a series of visual discrimination problems. A 2-choice Lashley jumping technique was used with an air blast to coerce the animals to choose. As the problem became more difficult, i.e., as the brightness values of the 2 stimuli approached each other, the animal''s period of resistance to jumping and the frequency of occurrence of the nail-biting pattern both increased. Despite this, the animal made very few errors. No indication of nail biting was found in the living-cage situation or when the animal was subjected to the sound of a blast of air. It is held that the increasingly difficult problem and the effect of the air blast comprise the conditions effective for producing this behavior pattern.

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