Can Rabbits Tell Humans Apart?: Discrimination of Individual Humans and Its Implications for Animal Research

To predict when food reward was available, 12 New Zealand White rabbits were trained to discriminate between two humans. All subjects had significantly higher response rates and greater behavioral arousal in the presence of the positive stimulus person. The ability to discriminate between individual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comparative medicine 2000-10, Vol.50 (5), p.483-485
Main Authors: Davis, Hank, Gibson, Jennifer A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Conditioning (Psychology) - physiology
Female
Humans
Pilot Projects
Rabbits - physiology
Rabbits - psychology
Random Allocation
Rosales
Videotape Recording
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Summary:To predict when food reward was available, 12 New Zealand White rabbits were trained to discriminate between two humans. All subjects had significantly higher response rates and greater behavioral arousal in the presence of the positive stimulus person. The ability to discriminate between individual humans sets the stage for unanticipated Pavlovian conditioning, which may have considerable implications for animal research in behavioral and biomedical settings.
ISSN:1532-0820