The Social Transmission of Information Concerning Aversively Conditioned Liquids

Grover, Cathy A.; Kixmiller, Jeffrey S.; Erickson, Cynthia A.; Becker, Angela H.; Davis, Stephen F.; Nallan, Gary B.

doi:10.1007/bf03395047

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Effectively, Galef and Whiskin found, across a number of experiments, that rats fail to show increased reliance on socially acquired information while foraging in risky situations (common sense would suggest those to be circumstances under which social reliance should be favored); yet, multiple studies have shown that rats readily prefer food that healthy demonstrator conspecifics have eaten. Still, and perhaps counter‐intuitively, multiple studies have also shown that rats do not seem to avoid ingesting food that sick or even unconscious rats have eaten (although see also References ). In fact, their preference for the food eaten by an ill demonstrator appears to be just as strong as their preference for food demonstrated by a healthy rat .…”

Section: Revisiting Social Transmission Through the Lens Of The Tinbementioning

confidence: 99%

Insights from social transmission of information in rodents

Monfils

Agee

2018

Genes Brain and Behavior

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Direct exposure to stimuli in their environment is not the only way that animals learn about important information. Individuals can infer fear from a social context through observation. Like humans, rats are very social animals, and may learn to infer information about their environment through their interactions with conspecifics. Here, we first review different models for social transmission of information in rodents. Second, we examine different modes of communication that are important to social learning. Then, we cover the different proximate factors that are thought to modulate the social transmission of information. Next, we identify social and environmental conditions that impact social learning, and finally, we conclude by revisiting social transmission through the lens of the Tinbergen framework.

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Section: Revisiting Social Transmission Through the Lens Of The Tinbementioning

confidence: 99%

Insights from social transmission of information in rodents

Monfils

Agee

2018

Genes Brain and Behavior

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“…The finding that rats can determine which foods conspecifics have recently eaten has led a number of investigators to inquire as to whether naive individuals will avoid foods eaten by obviously ill conspecifics. The results of such experiments, employing the straightforward procedure of introducing naive rats to demonstrators recently fed a novel food and then made ill by toxic injection, have been unequivocal: observer rats not only fail to avoid unfamiliar foods eaten by ill demonstrators, they exhibit increased preferences for foods eaten by ill demonstrators that are similar in magnitude to the increased preferences observer rats exhibit for foods eaten by healthy demonstrators Galef, Wigmore, & Kennett, 1983;Grover et al, 1988;A. Posadas-Andrews, personal communication, 1982).…”

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confidence: 99%

Further evidence that Norway rats do not socially transmit learned aversions to toxic baits

Galef

McQuoid

Whiskin

1990

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Three experiments were undertaken to examine the effects of interactions with demonstrator rats made ill by injection of lithium chloride (Lifll) on the later food choices of their observers. We found that (1) observer rats that had been taught an aversion to an unfamiliar diet exhibited a substantial reduction of that aversion after interacting with poisoned demonstrators that had eaten the diet to which the observers had learned an aversion, (2) exposure of an observer rat to poisoned demonstrator rats that had eaten a diet interfered with later acquisition by the observer of an aversion to the diet that the poisoned demonstrators had eaten, and (3) after interacting with poisoned demonstrators that had eaten one of two diets, observers that ate both diets and were then made ill formed an aversion to whichever diet their respective, poisoned demonstrators had not eaten. The present experiments, like previous studies both in our laboratory and elsewhere, failed to provide any evidence that naive observer rats will learn to avoid a food as a result of interacting with demonstrator rats that had eaten the food and exhibit symptoms of toxicosis. To the contrary, observer rats in the present experiments exhibited an enhanced preference for foods eaten by sick demonstrators.

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“…However, in most circumstances, observer rats respond in the same way to diet-identifying information acquired from healthy, active demonstrators and from either poisoned Grover et al, 1988;Kuan & Colwill, 1997) or unconscious demonstrators Galef & Stein, 1985). The results of Experiment I in the present series suggest that nutrient-deprived demonstrators (Experiment I B) and demonstrators exploiting limited supplies of food (Experiment I A), like poisoned or unconscious demonstrators, are as effective as are well-fed, healthy demonstrators in intluencing their respective observers' food choices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further investigations might reveal circumstances under which observer rats do discriminate among demonstrators based on their previous reliability as informants or their relative success in finding adequate supplies of nutritive foods to ingest. It should, however, be kept in mind that evidence ofsocial enhancement offood intake in Norway rats has proven easy to find in a wide variety of circumstances (see, e.g., : Grover et al, 1988Heyes & Durlach, 1990;Posadas-Andrews & Roper, 1983), while despite considerable effort (onlv apart ofwhich is reported here), we have had no success in finding circumstances where observers respond differently to information acquired from trustworthy or untrustworthy demonstrators, demonstrators exploiting rich or poor feeding sites, or demonstrators that have eaten protein-deficient or protein-sufficient diets.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What observer rats don’t learn about foods from demonstrator rats

Galef

Whiskin

Horn

1999

Animal Learning & Behavior

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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,

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The Social Transmission of Information Concerning Aversively Conditioned Liquids

Cited by 22 publications

References 11 publications

Insights from social transmission of information in rodents

Insights from social transmission of information in rodents

Further evidence that Norway rats do not socially transmit learned aversions to toxic baits

What observer rats don’t learn about foods from demonstrator rats

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