Two experiments are reported comparing performance in dominant and submissive rats as determined by a food-competition procedure. Ss in Experiment I were either trained to criterion or overtrained before being reversed on a visual discrimination task. Although the two groups did not differ significantly in learning the initial task, the dominant Ss were significantly slower on reversal than the submissives. Experiment II, which utilized a tandem runway, showed that when the reinforcer which maintained the running response was not available in the first goalbox, submissive rats responded with a greater increase in running speed in the second runway than dominant rats. These findings were discussed as reflecting motivational differences between dominant and submissive rats.There is considerable evidence that there are factors related to an organism's social rank which influence how it will perform in learning' situations. Compared to subordinates, dominant rabbits (Brown, 1937) and pigeons (Collins & Cavanaugh, 1970) have been shown to respond more vigorously in conditioning experiments, while dominant monkeys (Levine & Gordon, 1968) and mice (Hudgens & MacNeil, 1970) have been shown to be poorer in avoidance learning. It has also been shown that dominant monkeys have lower rates of operant responding than submissives (Bartlett & Meier, 1971). And dominant crayfish have been shown to have habit-reversal learning deficits in comparison with lower-ranked conspecifics (Costanzo, Rudolph, & Cox, 1972). The bases for these various relationships are not clear, and no data of this kind are available for the laboratory rat. EXPERIMENT IThis experiment was performed to determine whether the factor of dominance and submissiveness in rats affects performance in a visual, discrimination reversal task. A habit-reversal procedure was employed, since many of the factors affecting it have been defined. Such a procedure permits the observation not only of simple acquisition but also of reversal, where status-related factors may be of greater importance. A variation of such a procedure with socially ranked crayfish revealed differences only during reversal learning (Costanzo et al, 1972). Method SubjectsForty-eight experimentally naive male Wistar rats were *Now at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia.tNow at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.randomly paired at the age of 50 days. Each pair was housed in a single Wahmann rodent cage, and a 12-h day-night cycle was provided.Apparatus and Procedure Dominance Testing. One month after Ss were paired, they were fed powdered lab chow in Wahmann LC-306 feeding cups mounted in each cage's front wall. The cups permitted only one animal to feed at any time. Following 1 week of experience with the feeding cups, all pairs were placed on 23-h food deprivation. This maintenance schedule was in effect for the next week, and sbusequently the pairs were tested during food competition for 5 consecutive days. Each pair was tested during the initial 10 min of food competitio...
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