Effect of domestication on avoidance learning in the Norway rat

Abstract

Wild rats (Rattus norvegicus) in three stages of laboratorization were outperformed by domesticated (albino) rats in a two-way shuttlebox task. Avoidances in wild F1 laboratory-raised rats and in wild-caught laboratory-habituated rats were equivalent and exceeded avoidances in newly captured rats. Shuttlebox behaviors of all undomesticated rats were inflexible and emotional as compared to albino rats. © 1970, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.