Altruism or Arousal in the Rat?

Lavery, J. J.; Foley, P. J.

doi:10.1126/science.140.3563.172

Cited by 42 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…Studies suggesting that rodents are attentive to and affected by the distress of a conspecific date back 50 years, when Church (1959) demonstrated that rats can be conditioned using the footshock of another rat as the unconditioned stimulus (also see Chen, Panksepp, & Lahvis, 2009). Soon after it was demonstrated that rats would perform operant responses to terminate the distress of a conspecific (Rice & Gainer, 1962), although this was dismissed as arousal rather than altruism (Lavery & Foley, 1963). A recent Pain Communication 60 series of experiments was performed using a "jail" paradigm, in which some mice in a dyadic or triadic interaction were free to move and others were constrained behind metal bars (Langford et al, 2010b).…”

Section: Pain Communication 57mentioning

confidence: 99%

A biopsychosocial formulation of pain communication.

Hadjistavropoulos¹,

Craig²,

Duck³

et al. 2011

Psychological Bulletin

405

366

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We present a detailed framework for understanding the numerous and complicated interactions among psychological and social determinants of pain through examination of the process of pain communication. The focus is on an improved understanding of immediate dyadic transactions during painful events in the context of broader social phenomena. Fine-grain consideration of social transactions during pain leads to an appreciation of sociobehavioral events affecting both suffering persons as well as caregivers. Our examination considers knowledge from a variety of perspectives, including clinical health psychology, social and developmental processes, evolutionary psychology, communication studies, and behavioral neuroscience.

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Section: Pain Communication 57mentioning

confidence: 99%

A biopsychosocial formulation of pain communication.

Hadjistavropoulos¹,

Craig²,

Duck³

et al. 2011

Psychological Bulletin

405

366

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Altruistic behavior in lower animals has been investigated by controlled experiment (Lavery & Foley, 1963;Massennan, Wechkin, & Terris, 1964;Rice & Gainer, 1962), but there are mixed conc1usions about the existence of such behavior and about its detenninants. The research described here was designed to establish more conclusively the presence or absence of altrilistic behavior in the white rat.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In this group Os that had been shocked prior to the experiment showed altruistic behavior. Two existing hypotheses to account for altruistic behavior are: (a) that it is innate or "instinctive" (Masserman et al, 1964;Rice & Gainer, 1962); (b) that it serves merely to reduce the intensity of physical noxious stimuli (Lavery & Foley, 1963).…”

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confidence: 99%

Altruistic behavior in the albino rat

Greene

1969

Psychon Sci

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Altruistic behavior in lower animals has been investigated by controlled experiment (Lavery & Foley, 1963; Massennan, Wechkin, & Terris, 1964;Rice & Gainer, 1962), but there are mixed conc1usions about the existence of such behavior and about its detenninants. The research described here was designed to establish more conclusively the presence or absence of altrilistic behavior in the white rat. Rice & Gainer's (1962) operational definition of altruism was used, Le., "behavior of one animal that relieves another animal's distress." A distress state (manifested by squealing, urination, defecation, and a "mincing dance") was induced in a rat (Victim or V) by administration of electric foot shock. Another rat (Operator or 0) could introduce or terminate this distress state by appropriate manipulation of two levers. SUBJECTS The Ss were 70 male albino rats (56 Os and 14 Vs) of a commercial Sprague-Oawley strain, 90 to ISO days of age. APPARATUS Apparatus was an enclosed box divided ihto two adjacent compartments by a glass wall; spaces around the edges of the glass wall allowed passage of visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli. The compartment for the V had three bare walls, and a grid floor through wh ich electric shock could be delivered to the feet of the V. Constant shock delivery of .05 mA to the grid was assured by use of a commercial electro-mechanical scrambling device which changed the polarity of each grid-bar four times/sec. In the compartment for the 0 were two combination operant lever-food tray devices, each mounted on a wall adjacent to the glass separating wall. Each lever-tray device had a food-pellet dispenser which was set to deliver one pellet of food per lever press throughout the experiment. Circuitry was such that either lever could be set to actuate or terminate the grid shock in addition to and concurrent with the delivery of a food pellet. Thus, it could be arranged that a press of lever X by the 0 would deliver one pellet of food to the 0 and either introduce or terminate shock to the V, while a press of lever Y would yield only food reward, or vice versa. An automatie timer and reset system was used so that, for each lever press, shock was either introduced or tenninated for 3 sec. Ouring all experimental trials the entire apparatus was operated automatically, PROCEOURE Each 0 underwent 12 to 16 30-min trials (training and experimental), conducted on consecutive days. Os were deprived of food for 23 h prior to each trial.Each 0 was first trained to feed itself by operating either lever, and then was allowed to develop a preference for one lever. A lever preference was considered to exist when the 0 procured more than 90% of his food pellets by use of the same lever for two consecutive 30-min trials. To speed up the development of a preference, one lever was adjusted so that it Psychon. Sei., 1969, Vol. 14(1) required twice as much force to activate as did the other. By the end of 8 to 10 training trials over 80% of the Os showed a preference for the "easier" lever; remaining Os preferre...

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“…This aiding behavior was termed "altruistic" by the authors. Lavery & Foley (1963) suggested that the Rice and Gainer results could be due to an increased activation effect due to arousal rather than to "altruism." In a follow-up study by Rice (1964), rats that were exposed to another rat being shocked did not press a bar to terminate the shock, and instead exhibited signs of fear.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%