Social Influences on Food Choices of Norway Rats and Mate Choices of Japanese Quail

Abstract

Here I review the two major lines of research in which my laboratory has been engaged for the past 35 years. The first of these research programs concerns the description and analysis of social learning processes influencing food choices of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus). The second involves social interactions affecting mate choices of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). Study of these model systems has shown that at least two biologically important behaviors, food choice and mate choice, can be shaped by social interactions and that the social interactions that bias behavioral development are open to reductionist analysis in terms of the behavior of interacting individuals