SUSCEPTIBILITY OF ARTIFICIALLY REARED RAT PUPS TO SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON FOOD CHOICE

Using techniques developed by Hall (1975) and modified by Diaz (1991), we maintained rat pups in total social isolation from the time they were 2 or 3 days of age until they were 42 days old. We found that rat pups reared in social isolation exhibited susceptibility to social enhancement of food preference indistinguishable from that exhibited by normally reared rat pups. These data suggest that development of a tendency-to use conspecifics as sources of information about what foods to eat does not depend upon previous experience either of interaction with conspecifics or of feeding in social situations. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.