The Effects of Food Deprivation on Food Sharing and Attraction in the White Rat.

Food sharing behaviors in the white rat were examined in two studies using a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design with depriva tion of the free roaming animals (deprived or not food deprived), deprivation of the tethered target animals (deprived or not food deprived), and food availability during testing (available or not available) as the independent variables. In Experiment I a single animal served as the tethered target while in Experiment II two animals served as tethered targets. Food sharing and eating behaviors for deprived animals were much like those of the wild rats described by Barnett (1963). The nondeprived animals neither ate nor retrieved-food. No support was generated for an altruism hypothesis which required that the deprivation state of the tethered animal affect retrieval rates by the free roaming animals. The presence of food decreased contact times for the deprived, free roaming animals but not for the non deprived ones (p < .10 Exp I; p < .05 Exp II). In Experiment II more time was spent with nondeprived (larger) targets than with deprived (smaller) targets (p < .001). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]