Title: The neophobia—optimality explanation of contrafreeloading rats: A reassessment
Abstract: We report a single experiment examining the utility of a neophobia—optimality model in explaining barpressing for earned food in the presence of free food. Rats were trained to barpress and given similar amounts of experience with earned food but different amounts of experience with empty free food containers and/or the contextual cues surrounding the containers. All subjects were subsequently administered four repeated tests for earned food preference. The results support the neophobia—optimality model. Those animals with the most habituation to the free food source, without feeding from it, showed the lowest preference for earned food. Conversely, those animals with the least habituation to the free food source showed the highest earned food preference. The implications of these data for modifying the neophobia—optimality model are discussed.
Publication Year: 1981
Publication Date: 1981-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 10
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