We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Social and asocial cues about new food: Cue reliability influences intake in rats.
- Authors
Dewar, Gwen
- Abstract
Dietary generalists often treat new foods with caution and may rely on social cues to identify new foods that are safe to eat. However, not all generalists show the same degree of caution, nor do they all rely on social cues to the same extent. The cue reliability approach (CRA) attempts to account for this variation by quantifying the costs and benefits of sampling a new food for the first time. The experiments reported here tested predictions of the CRA, and the results suggested that rats eat more new food when asocial cues predict that new foods will prove more profitable than familiar foods. The experimental results also suggested that rats are more likely to seek out social cues when asocial cues are unreliable.
- Subjects
RATS; ANIMAL feeding behavior; LEARNING in animals; SOCIAL learning; ANIMAL psychology; LEARNING
- Publication
Learning & Behavior, 2004, Vol 32, Issue 1, p82
- ISSN
1543-4494
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3758/BF03196009