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Social Learning in Rats: The Effects of Orienting Phenotype, Sex, and Social Training
by Miriam E. Ortega
Faculty Advisor: Marie Monfils, PhD
Rats, like humans, are social animals with the ability to learn through observation, interaction with conspecifics, and direct experience. Animal social learning models provide insight into mechanisms of fear and reward-mediated learning, though individual differences in social learning remains an under-investigated area. Previous studies suggest that an animal’s attentional response style to stimuli may represent a difference in information processing. As opposed to those with reward-directed styles (“non-orienters”), rats with cue-directed response styles (“orienters”) may express higher reward-seeking, impulsivity, and risk-taking. Research also indicates that females may be more susceptible to the effects of rewarding stimuli. The current study tested whether the orienter phenotype, sex, and social training may explain individual variability in social learning of cue-reward associations. Rats were categorized as orienters or non-orienters based on their cue-directed responses during appetitive Pavlovian conditioning. To investigate the effect of social training on subsequent cue-reward learning, observer rats were paired with a trained demonstrator who they observed perform the association. The results indicated that non-orienters showed significantly higher reward contact, but only at certain sessions. No significant effects between social training and sex on learning cue-reward associations emerged. Future studies should account for dominance and familiarity/kinship between demonstrator-observer rats in social training, as this may allow for a more robust analysis of how the orienter phenotype and sex influence reward learning among peers.