The unrestricted adult social and nonsocial behavior of albino rats isolated from 21 to 70 days of age was compared with the behavior of rats receiving normal social experience. Isolated animals exhibited aberrant self-manipulative behaviors during the period of isolation, and both isolate-reared males and females were more aggressive than their group-reared counterparts. The hypothesis that females are buffered against the effects of social isolation received little support. Numerous gender differences and differences in the gender of the object of social response were found for both isolate- and group-reared rats. Gender and Rearing Conditions were relatively independent influences on behavior with few Gender x Treatment interactions reaching significance.

Sixty•four male albino rats were trained to leverpress in an operant chamber and to run a straight runway. Half of Ss were trained on a continuous reinforcement schedule (CRF), and the other half on a partial reinforcement schedule (PR). Upon completion of acquisition, the groups were subdivided and given acquisition training in the other apparatus, half under conditions of CRF and the other half under conditions of PRo Upon completion of acquisition on both pieces of apparatus, half of Ss in each subgroup were extinguished in the runway, and the other half were extinguished in the operant chamber. Results showed that resistance to extinction of either response was a function only of the training reinforcement for that response, and was independent of the schedule of reinforcement received in training of the other response. Results were discussed in terms of the response specificity of the partial reinforcement effect (PRE).