Familiarity and relatedness: Effects on social learning about foods by Norway rats and Mongolian gerbils

Abstract

In recent experiments in which the social influences on feeding in Mongolian gerbils were investigated, observer gerbils acquired food preferences from conspecific demonstrators only if the demonstrators and observers were either related or familiar. Even then, the effects of demonstrator gerbils on observers' food choices lasted less than 24 h. In similar experiments with Norway rats, the familiarity/relatedness of demonstrators and observers had little effect on social learning, and the demonstrators' influence on observers' food choices lasted many days. We examined the causes of these differences and found that, after observer gerbils interacted with either unfamiliar or familiar conspecific demonstrators that had been fed using procedures typically used to feed demonstrator rats, they showed long-lasting social learning about foods, whereas observer rats interacting with conspecific demonstrators that had been fed as demonstrator gerbils normally are fed showed effects of familiarity/relatedness to demonstrators on their social learning about foods. Procedural differences, rather than species differences, seem to be responsible for reported inconsistencies in social learning about foods by rats and gerbils.

Peer influences on drug self-administration

“…In contrast, rats in the present study were able to engage in unrestricted species-typical social behavior for 21 hr/day in the home cage, such as pinning, chasing, and rolling, as well complex behavioral sequences of deception and surprise attacks (Panksepp et al, 1984). These behaviors play a critical role in the development of normal social relationships in socially housed rats (Hol et al, 1999; Van den Berg et al, 1999; Von Frijtag et al, 2002), and likely play a modulatory role in social learning tasks in which responding depends on the degree of familiarity between the subjects (see, for example, Choleris et al, 1998; Galef et al, 1998; Kavaliers et al, 2005). …”

Mechanisms of copying behaviour in zebra finches

“…Social learning about foraging has been shown in a wide range of species (Danchin et al, 2004) and when an individual is faced with choosing between two unfamiliar food options, it may benefit initially by choosing the option chosen by other animals. Indeed, naïve rats prefer the flavour that matches that of food consumed by an experienced individual (Galef et al, 1998(Galef et al, , 1984. In this way social learning enables the observer to consume a known, safe food while avoiding a potentially poisonous, unknown food.…”

Socially transmitted food preferences can be used to study long-term memory in rats

“…This one-trial procedure for inducing a learned flavor preference, described in detail in Galef (2002), provides a simple, noninvasive, costeffective way to produce robust changes in appetitive behavior not only in Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), but also in house mice (Mus domesticus; Valsecchi & Galef, 1989), Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus; Galef et al, 1998), pine voles (Microtus pinetorum; Solomon, Yaeger, & Beeler, 2002), spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus; McFadyen-Ketchum & Porter, 1989), and Belding's ground squirrel (Spermophilus beldingii; Peacock & Jenkins, 1988).…”