Abstract
The performance of the laboratory rat in the enclosed maze apparatus is profoundly influenced by subject-generated cues that seem to be olfactory. The present experiment investigated the specificity of these cues. Odor cues produced by odor-donor rats placed in the startbox were ineffective determinants of the behavior of runway-trained rats when the deprivation states of these two groups differed. However, when the deprivation states of these two groups coincided, the odor cues produced by the odor-donor rats became effective determinants of performance. Thus, it would appear that even though odor cues are influential in determining the runway performance of the rat subject, their effectiveness may well be drive-state dependent.
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Ludvigson, H. W., McNeese, R. R., & Collerain, I.Aversion, then attraction to conspecific frustration odor as a function of experience. Paper presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, November 1973.
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This research was supported by a Tower Fund Research Grant from Austin Peay State University to the first author and a Faculty Research Grant from Middle Tennessee State University to the second author.
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Davis, S.F., Prytula, R.E., Noble, M.J. et al. Motivational specificity of the signal value of odor cues. Animal Learning & Behavior 4, 407–410 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214430
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03214430