Question

Describe feff galesf’s work on foraging behavior in rats- what was the purpose of his research? What did he discover?

Answer 1

Jeff Galef worked on the principle associated with social transmission of food preference task(STFP).His purpose of his reseach was to find out how social transmission of food preference takes place in rodents/rats.He discovered that STFP is based on a principle which suggests that the information for obtaining diet in rats is communicated between the rats during social interaction.He explained that the foraging behaviour includes a demonstrator rat that consumes a novel flavor and then goes on to interact freely with another observer rat.He discovered that the STFP principle applies during this interaction when the observer rat gets the clue about the flavour of food from the demostrator rat and thus prefers the same flavoured food.Development of this food preference depends all on the ability of the observer rat which takes place during the interaction phase by detecting olfactory cues present on the breath of the demonstrator rat.These olfactory cues could be the scent of the food from the demonstrator rat.