Development of locomotion toward home nesting material in neonatal rats
- 1 July 1977
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Developmental Psychobiology
- Vol. 10 (4), 315-321
- https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.420100405
Abstract
Neonatal rats were individually placed in a narrow choice zone between home and fresh nesting materials. At Day 2 postpartum the pups made significantly more home-choosing responses (vs responses for fresh nesting material). At a mean of 5.6 days (range, 4 to 9 days) the pups reached a criterion of 2 consecutive days of responses all for home nesting material. The number of head contacts increased abruptly upon reaching the criterion. In a 2nd experiment we observed that the pups which were repeatedly tested performed no better than those which were tested for the 1st or the 2nd time. Thus, (a) home-seeking responses appear to emerge substantially earlier than previously reported by other investigators, (b) head-contact responses appear to be related to successful home-choosing, and (c) some maturational rather than experiential factors are important for the development of both head-contact and home-choosing responses.This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
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