¶ … long-Term habituation of exploration in rats, hamsters, and gerbils by Poucet, Durup, & Thinus-Blanc Concepts being studied

In this study, the researchers were seeking to study habituation to a novel environment in three species of rodent: rat, hamster, and gerbil. They wanted to see if the animals exhibited habituation behavior each time that they were placed in a new environment, and whether the animals exhibited any between-sessions habituation.

Prior research

Prior research had revealed that hamsters would actively reinvestigate objects during a test session, if, after two sessions of habituation, the spatial relationship between the two objects had changed. Prior research conflicted about whether rats would react to changes in the spatial relationship between objects in a field. They examined prior research and found what appeared to be a specific lack in rats of between-sessions habituation.

What the experimenters attempt...

They housed them in the same type of facilities, on a 12-hour day-night cycle, and fed them the same type of food. The testing apparatus was a circular field, 105 cm in diameter, with walls 35 cm high, surrounded by white curtains (except one side that had a striped curtain), with an overhead camera. Into the apparatus, the experimenters placed four different objects: a glass jar,…