Using a runway paradigm to assess the relative strength of rats’ motivations for enrichment objects

Laboratory animals should be provided with enrichment objects in their cages; however, it is first necessary to test whether the proposed enrichment objects provide benefits that increase the animals’ welfare. The two main paradigms currently used to assess proposed enrichment objects are the choice...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBehavior research methods Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 517 - 524
Main Authors Hanmer, Louise A., Riddell, Patricia M., Williams, Claire M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer New York 01.05.2010
Springer Nature B.V
Psychonomic Society, Inc
Subjects
Animals
Behavior
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Choice Behavior
Cognitive Psychology
Design
Laboratory animals
Male
Motivation
Preferences
Psychology
Psychology, Experimental - methods
Rats
Rats, Inbred Strains
Rodents
Running
Time Factors
Environmental Enrichment
Motivational Preference
Significant Linear Trend
Plastic Ball
Lego Brick
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Summary:Laboratory animals should be provided with enrichment objects in their cages; however, it is first necessary to test whether the proposed enrichment objects provide benefits that increase the animals’ welfare. The two main paradigms currently used to assess proposed enrichment objects are the choice test, which is limited to determining relative frequency of choice, and consumer demand studies, which can indicate the strength of a preference but are complex to design. Here, we propose a third methodology: a runway paradigm, which can be used to assess the strength of an animal’s motivation for enrichment objects, is simpler to use than consumer demand studies, and is faster to complete than typical choice tests. Time spent with objects in a standard choice test was used to rank several enrichment objects in order to compare with the ranking found in our runway paradigm. The rats ran significantly more times, ran faster, and interacted longer with objects with which they had previously spent the most time. It was concluded that this simple methodology is suitable for measuring rats’ motivation to reach enrichment objects. This can be used to assess the preference for different types of enrichment objects or to measure reward system processes.
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ISSN:1554-351X
1554-3528
DOI:10.3758/BRM.42.2.517