Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2417913 Animal Behaviour 2008 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

Formal models of trade-offs between individual and social learning predict situations in which animals should increase their reliance on socially acquired information. In three experiments, we found, that as theory predicts, ‘dissatisfied’ and ‘uncertain’ Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, increased their reliance on social learning. When choosing between two unfamiliar foods, rats that had been maintained for 1 week on either (experiment 1) an unpalatable, energetically dilute diet or (experiment 2) an unyielding surface in a hot, constantly illuminated room, as well as (experiment 3) rats uncertain as to which of two unfamiliar flavours that they had ingested was associated with illness showed greater reliance on socially acquired information than did their respective ‘satisfied’ and ‘certain’ controls.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences Animal Science and Zoology
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