An observer rat that interacts with a conspecific, a demonstrator that has eaten a
flavoured food, is subsequently more likely to eat that food than an alternative, novel food
(Galef & Wigmore, 1983). In the first part of this thesis, four experiments were
undertaken to determine the influence of unreliable demonstrators on observer food
preference. In the first three experiments, observers were poisoned after interaction with
demonstrators; a demonstrator that demonstrated a food that led to poisoning was
considered an unreliable demonstrator. The first experiment compared the influence of an
unreliable demonstrator and an unfamiliar demonstrator on observers' food preferences.
Experiment 2 compared the influence of demonstration from an unreliable conspecific and
a familiar conspecific that had only provided irrelevant information. The third experiment
compared the influence of an unreliable and a reliable demonstrator. Experiment 4
compared the influence for protein-deficient observers of a demonstrator that had
previously demonstrated a protein-deficient diet and a demonstrator that was unfamiliar.
None of the first four experiments showed a significant difference in effectiveness of social
transmission due to demonstrator quality.
In the second part of the thesis I investigated the influence of familiarity on
demonstrator effectiveness. In Experiment 5, the influence of local sisters was compared with that of unfamiliar non-relatives as demonstrators. Sisters were not better
demonstrators than unfamiliar non-relatives. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/22716 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Horn, Christopher Scott |
| Contributors | Galef, B.G, Psychology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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