Abstract
Three experiments investigated the effect of container familiarity on the rat's preference for earned food. Subjects were trained to earn food by pressing a lever. Earned food was delivered into one of two containers. During test sessions one of the containers contained free food, the other was connected to a lever-operated pellet dispenser that enabled subjects to earn identical food. In Expt 1, those subjects with the most recent exposure to the free food source preferred the free food. In Expt 2, equal amounts of exposure were given to both food sources; all subjects preferred the free food. In Expt 3, container novelty was manipulated directly. Food preference followed container familiarity; subjects earned their food when it came from the most familiar container but ate free food when the earned food was dispensed into the more novel container. The results are consistent with the view that laboratory rats are neophobic. It is suggested that failure to control for container neophobia is the primary reason that others have found that laboratory rats will earn food in the presence of identical free food.
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