Poster Session #1
Presentation Type
Poster - Campus Access Only
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Nathan Insel
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Department of Psychology
Abstract / Artist's Statement
The goal of this study was to study social learning in an animal model. Social learning is essential for survival across most animal species, and an animal model of social learning would provide a tool for understanding the brain functions that support these behaviors. Social learning was evaluated using a paradigm known as the “tube test” (Lindzey et al. 1961) which measures dominance relationships based on whether a degu advances or retreats when they encounter one-another in a tube, as well as the amount of time this interaction takes to proceed. While previous studies have examined dominance relationships using this test, these studies do not normally examine changes over time. Dyads of either cagemate (familiar) or stranger (unfamiliar) male degus were tested every day for 5 days in the tube test. One month after the first round of trials, a second round of trials will explore how the social relationships are retained over time. Preliminary observations suggest that the latencies between when the degus met in the center of the tube and one retreated did not differ between cagemate and stranger groups and did not appear to change over days. These results suggest that the tube test method may need to be further refined before it can be used as a tool to study social learning.
Category
Life Sciences
Social learning of male dominance relationships in degus
UC South Ballroom
The goal of this study was to study social learning in an animal model. Social learning is essential for survival across most animal species, and an animal model of social learning would provide a tool for understanding the brain functions that support these behaviors. Social learning was evaluated using a paradigm known as the “tube test” (Lindzey et al. 1961) which measures dominance relationships based on whether a degu advances or retreats when they encounter one-another in a tube, as well as the amount of time this interaction takes to proceed. While previous studies have examined dominance relationships using this test, these studies do not normally examine changes over time. Dyads of either cagemate (familiar) or stranger (unfamiliar) male degus were tested every day for 5 days in the tube test. One month after the first round of trials, a second round of trials will explore how the social relationships are retained over time. Preliminary observations suggest that the latencies between when the degus met in the center of the tube and one retreated did not differ between cagemate and stranger groups and did not appear to change over days. These results suggest that the tube test method may need to be further refined before it can be used as a tool to study social learning.