Rethinking Rats
Some people say that life is like a rat race; there could be some truth to that.
Scientists performed experiments on rats and their observations suggest that rats actually think about their choices in life. Rats need food for survival, but sometimes the effort in getting the food costs more than what they would benefit from eating it. Based on the study, rats can make decisions about what they should eat when given different alternatives. This makes sense because rats are foragers by nature, so they would be presented with many options, but they can’t have everything; it’s important to choose the right food that will nourish them while keeping them safe.
The scientists set up a T-maze, where the rat was placed at the bottom of the T, and at either side they had chambers with visible sugar pellets. One side had a single sugar pellet and the other side had three-to-five sugar pellets; if it was left like this the rats would obviously choose the side with more pellets. To see if rats did make choices about value, they set up an obstacle course of sorts to get to the multiple sugar pellets. The obstacle course was a combination of walls and ledges to climb over and tight ropes to walk across. Unfortunately, the article does not state how big the T-maze was. What they observed is that the rats will go through the obstacles to get to the sugar pellets, but once it becomes too much of an effort for them, they will instead settle for the single pellet. This idea that rats think about how much effort they will use to get a reward is also in the human psyche; with more experiments and observation, maybe we will learn we have more in common with the little furry rodents than we thought.
Posted by John Garabedian (1)
posted by PWH @ 4:10 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
You made a clever title- it got my attention. The writing itself was very easy to read as well. I can tell you are a good writer!
I only have 1 question. How was the rat's obstacle made more diffucult than the T shape?
If you add in this bit of information, it will give your blog more ground for proving that the rats chose the 1 sugar pill solely because a they were weighing out and "thinking" about which pill/pills would be worth the effort. But perhaps the rat simply couldnt see the other pills when their course became more difficult and thats why it chose the one pill?
Without the information about what the course looks like, it leaves the reader room to assume anything, interrupting the theory about rats' decision making.
Overall, nice work! Thats my only little suggestion. You picked a good topic and made it intersting to the reader.
Posted by Natalie Nicholson (1)
How big is the T-shape? I'm assuming its somewhat big, leaving more options for obstacles. It also further tests their analyzing skills. It makes you wonder what type of obstacles were presented in the T- maze, and if they represented real life obstacles for the rats. This article is very timely too, as we also are doing a similar experiment with squirrel foraging.
Posted by Justin Pok
I have 4 pet rats myself, Pestilence, Death, War and Reese and they're really bright. I never before had a problem with people doing humane research involving rats but after getting to know mine I'm now horrified by the conditions with which they are kept in. Anyone that has met my rats cannot deny that these animals are easily as smart as a clever dog. They have individual personalities and are capable of very strong attachments to one another. They are also capable of understanding language, learning their individual names and names of treats and toys. They also can recognize humans as they recognize their own.
For one anecdote of my own, my Reese is an old gal who can be a bit lethargic compared to the other three who are quite young. She sits in her hammock, which she will pee in and continue to marinade in it if I don’t remove it for washing. One day I was a little slow in changing it out. Death got sick of the smell I guess and proceeded to carry as much litter from the litter box as she could from the bottom level of the cage to the top, and pack it under the part of the hammock Reese was peeing on. She not only brought up all of the carryable pieces of litter, but all of the poop and everything else with it and arranged it perfectly under the hammock. This is proof enough of complex problem solving to me! It makes sense Death would try to make that part of the cage cleaner because she’s very attached to Reese and will sit and groom her, or lie down with her if she’s tired.
I’d like to see more research done in areas of emotions with rats, rather than just food evaluation. It’s rarely considered that they are exceptionally social creatures; they thrive on company. They also have a lot of need for mental stimulation, something that most lab situations do not provide. It’s really unfortunate because a rat’s personality and true behaviors don’t shine until they have both space and company. I feel that the reason their intelligence is often taken for granted is directly a result of the conditions that we keep them in. A rat needs 2 cubic feet of space per rat, at least one same-sex partner (they do best in groups of 7), a hideaway and a small variety of toys to have its needs met. The tiny lab boxes we put them in provide for neither space, hiding instinct or any form of mental stimulation. In many cases they are housed singly, which alone is a form of cruelty. A rat can live without all of those things, but I highly doubt you will get an accurate reading of its “intelligence."
I liked your article, I'm merely criticizing the methods we use to test rats. I feel that they have just been a part of scientific research for so long that we've never updated our methods of care for them despite now having better knowledge of their needs. Many feel that because the old way is cheaper and its how it's always been done it makes it acceptable.
~Michelle Vigeant
I enjoyed the blog. The only thing that I found confusing was the obstacles. What kind of obstacles did they use? Besides that I found the blog interesting and written well.
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