Severe early malnutrition and DRL performance in the rat.
Rats with a history of severe early malnutrition (6% casein) were compared to well-fed control animals on an ascending series of DRL values ranging from 5 to 60 seconds. The 6% rats who were dietarily-rehabilitated at weaning did not differ from control animals in efficiency, responses per reinforcement or response rate. In contrast, rats chronically exposed to 6% diets performed so poorly during training with continuous reinforcement that they did not advance to even the first DRL (5-sec) condition. These findings show that severely-undernourished rats can perform within normal limits on even high DRL values, provided they are well trained and that they have adequate nutritional rehabilitation.
D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004526:Efficiency; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011488:Protein Deficiency / Q000523:psychology*; D051381:Rats; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012439:Saccharin; D014868:Water Deprivation
D012439:Saccharin