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Environmental enrichment effects on rats’ insight

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Aida Longán Jonathan Buriticá

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 Environmental enrichment effects on rats’ insight
Aida Longán & Jonathan Buriticá
Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones en Comportamiento, Universidad de Guadalajara
Abstract Methods Accommodation conditions “Dig-climb test” box Procedure Discussion
SOLVED NOT SOLVED
Insight is the resolution of a problem in a sudden, continuous The results show that environmental enrichment improve learning
Training
and goal-directed way. Prior experience with objects and behaviors Pre 1 Pre-
in rats as seen in the differences in the pre requisite training, similar to
Open

related to the problem task could be a key factor promoting insight. 2 Field
Task
–
Test
requisite
behavior the results of Morgan (1973) in rats. Also animals in the enrichment

Eighteen Wistar rats, were used to analyze their performance in a condition solved more the dig-climb test. Even though it was found

problem task called “dig-climb test". An experimental group was 4 th 1 st continuity and directionality in the behavior of some enriched rats, they
Test Test
exposed to Environmental Enrichment condition and a control did not solve in a spontaneous way. Future research would be necessary
End of
testing
group lived under social housing. It was found that subjects of Training 2
to provide stronger evidence of insight as well as to identify the main
Increase
enriched group learnt faster the prerequisite behaviors and resolved 1 in reward
Pre-
requisite causes of sudden solutions to problems, or recombination of previous
Apparatus value
behaviors
more the “dig-climb test” than subjects in social housed condition. acquired behavior. For example, some factor that could encourage or

These results attest the importance of environmental enrichment in Concomitant

obstruct insight could be the use of different criteria of learning
3 rd training 2 nd
learning and problem solving. Test session Test prerequisite behavior, a different problem-task or different types of
environmental enrichment, like free exploration of big space (Bernstein,
Introduction Results Tests resolutions Pretest behavior analysis 1973) or different objects and behaviors related with the task.

Köhler (1925) was who introduced the concept of insight as a Conclusions

Pre- Order of N° sess. N° Sess. Test Test Test Test
Group Subject
learning process qualitatively different from a trial-error learning. test training Dig Climb 1 2 3 4
YES The understanding and studying of insight is an area that still needs
Epstein (1984), explained insight as a result of different behavioral Social 3 - - - - - - -
552 s a lot of research, both empirical and conceptual. Despite these
principles: functional generalization, automatic chaining and Dig +
5 NO 23 5 NO NO NO NO difficulties, the results found demonstrate a factor involved in the
Climb
resurgence. Other authors, as Tomasello and Call (1998),
Dig + emergence of some characteristics of insight: the environmental
7 NO 22 5 NO NO NO NO
understood insight as a mental trial-error process. Neves-filho et al. Climb
Dig + enrichment. In addition, it can also improve learning speed in rats.
(2015) investigated insight in rats using an innovative task called 9 NO 21 5 NO NO NO NO
Climb Research in these factors opens a great possibility to a better
“dig-climbing test”. However, there are few studies that study the Climb +
2 NO 24 5 NO NO NO NO understanding of different phenomena such as creativity, problem
Dig
factors that lead to sudden, continuous and goal directed solutions
Climb + solving, understanding of causality, response acquisition and even the
4 NO 21 5 NO NO NO NO
to problems in rats. Birch (1945) emphasized the importance of Dig
Climb + Figure 2.- Time in seconds in which each subject performs a
scope and limits of the definition of operant behavior.
prior experience with objects related to the problem task in the 6 NO 24 6 NO NO NO NO
Dig certain behavior during the pretest.
insight in chimpanzees. Classic studies proved that environmental 8 NO
Climb +
Dig
23 6 NO NO NO NO Climbing training References
enrichment in rats generated better performance in the Hebb- Dig + Epstein, R., Kirshnit, C. E., Lanza, R. P., & Rubin, L. C. (1984). “Insight”
1 NO 22 6 NO NO NO NO
Williams test (Hebb & Williams, 1946) (Hebb, 1947; Forgays & Climb in the pigeon: Antecedents and determinants of an intelligent
Enri- YES performance. Nature, 308 (5954), 61–62.
Forgays, 1952) and in the T-maze (Bernstein,1973); but there are no 15 - - - - - - -
ched 196 s https://doi.org/10.1038/308061a0
studies showing that prior experience in different accommodation YES Hebb, D. O. (1947). The effects of early experience on problem-solving at
17 - - - - - - -
404 s maturity. American Psychologist, 2, 306-307.
conditions facilitates insight. YES
18 - - - - - - - Hebb, D. O. & Williams, K. A. (1946). A method of rating animal
212 s
intelligence. Gen. Psychol., 34, 59-65.
Climb + YES
10 NO - 5 - - - Köhler, W. (1925). The Mentality of Apes. Oxon: Routledge, Trench,
Dig 438 s
Climb + YES Trubner & Co., Ltd.
14 NO 24 6 NO NO NO
Dig 542 s Morgan, M. J. (1973). Effects of post-weaning environment on learning in
Climb + the rat. Animal Behaviour, 21(3), 429–442.
12 NO 21 4 NO NO NO NO
Dig https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(73)80002-8
Dig + YES Figure 3.- Time in seconds that each subject took in performing
11 NO 20 4 NO - - 20 climbing responses in each session or number of climbing Neves-Filho, H., Stella, L., Dicezare, R., & Garcia-Mijares, M. (2015).
Climb 165 s Insight in the white rat: spontaneous interconnection of two
responses in 600 seconds (maximum session time).
Dig + repertoires in Rattus norvegicus. European Journal of Behavior
13 NO 20 4 NO NO NO NO Digging training
Climb Analysis, 16(2), 188–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/15021149.2015.1083283
Tomasello, M., & Call, J. (1997). Primate cognition. New York, NY, US:
Open Field Task Oxford University Press.
Figure 1.- Average
time in seconds that
each group remained
Acknowledgements
at a distance less
than or equal to 10 Funded by CONACyT (call 291137/ CVU 737744).
cm from the edges
(thigmotaxis) of the
open field test box Contact information
(3600 cm). The total Figure 4.- Average of the number of froot loops ingested in
test time was 600 s. each session for each group.
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