Abstract
The offspring of field-trapped black rats and domesticated albino rats were reciprocally cross-fostered with a survival rate through weaning of 100%. When the rats were studied under free-operant (Sidman) avoidance at maturity, the performance of the albino rats was superior to that of the black rats at the same shock intensities. All of the rats learned to avoid, and the performance of the black rats was the most successful that has been reported under this procedure. Conspecific-raised rats of each species were superior to foster-raised conspecifics. As a whole, the conspecific-raised group was superior to the foster-raised group. This finding suggests that black rat and albino rat mothers behaved differentially toward their foster pups to the extent that performance was subsequently impaired in a complex learning situation. The albino rats received a higher percentage of shocks early in the session (warm-up) than the black rats, and foster rearing did not seem to affect this phenomenon.
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A version of this paper was presented at the 1971 convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C. The author thanks S. A. Barnett and R. C. LaBarba for their comments on the manuscript.
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Powell, R.W. Free-operant (Sidman) avoidance in reciprocally cross-fostered wild and domesticated rats. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 1, 41–44 (1973). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333334