No abstract

Naive "observer" rats that interact with conspecific "demonstrators" fed a distinctive food increase intake of the food their demonstrators have eaten, Here we found that observer rats that had interacted simultaneously with 2 demonstrator rats, I fed a distinctively flavored, protein-poor food, the other a distinctively flavored, protein-rich food, did not prefer the former, Similarly, observer rats ate equal amounts of two distinctively flavored foods after interacting simultaneously with 2 demonstrator rats, 1 that had consumed all food available to it, the other fed from a surplus of the second food. Last, observer rats that had interacted with both a "trustworthy" demonstrator (1 an observer had leamed ate only nutritious foods) and an "untrustworthy" demonstrator (1 an observer had leamed ate noxious substances) did not prefer unfamiliar foods eaten by trustworthy demonstrators to those eaten by untrustworthy demonstrators. These findings suggest limits on social information observers use in selecting foods.After interacting brietly with a recently fed rat (a demonstrator), a naive rat (an observer) exhibits substantial enhancement of its relative intake of whatever food its demonstrator has eaten . Analyses ofthe behavioral processes involved in such social intluence on food choice indicate that Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) do not produce specialized "signals" that provide information about ingested foods. Rather, observers are intluenced in their food choices by olfactory cues that are emitted passively by demonstrators as a consequence of ingestion and digestion (Galef, Mason,