Contrafreeloading as a function of early environmental rearing conditions

Abstract

Four groups of rat subjects were reared for 45 days in one of four environments (two enriched, a normal, and a deprived, respectively). Following the rearing period, all subjects were administered an 11-day training/testing session consisting of: (1) exposure to free food, (2) barpress training, and (3) choice between obtaining food freely or via barpressing. The results indicated that subjects reared in the deprived environment preferred to barpress significantly more than all other groups. Attention is directed toward a consideration of manipulatory behavior in explaining these results.