The Effects of Different Types of Food Reinforcers on Performance in the T-Maze Sarah A. Linderman, Fahima Vakalia, and Laura Revetta Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Lynchburg, VA Introduction Reinforcers are vital in learning a new task (Chance, 2006). In studies with rats food is often used as the reinforcer for the desired behavior, and while one might think that any type of food would work equally well, previous studies have shown that rats have rather discriminating tastes (Simmons, 1924; Elliot, 1928). It has also been shown that rats prefer to explore novel objects and toys rather than ones that they are familiar with (Kelly, Laroche, & Davis, 2003) and if this finding carries over into taste preferences then familiarity with a certain reward might also affect the rats motivation to want to complete a task to get that reward. Therefore our study looked at whether the type of food reward, novel or familiar, would affect how quickly a rat subject completes a T-Maze run. Method Subjects The subjects were adult, male Long-Evans rats (N=6). Rats were allowed to continue free-feeding throughout the experiment. Water was available ad libitum. Apparatus The T-Maze was used with a small plastic cup at the end of each choice arm. The plastic cup at the end of the right hand arm contained the reinforcer, either Froot Loops or pieces of a Snickers candy bar. Procedure Rats were divided into two groups: one group received a familiar reward for finding the correct arm (a Froot Loop), the other group received a previously unfamiliar reward (a piece of Snickers candy bar) for completing the same task. Once the rat was assigned to a certain reward it always got that same reward throughout the experiment. Each rat was placed into the T-Maze and timed until it ate one of the rewards (latency to find reward). Each rat underwent five trials. Discussion - Unlike the preference for novel entertainment (Kelly, Laroche, & Davis, 2003) rats had no significant preference for novel food rewards, showing that these two preferences do not follow the same rules. - Because there was no significant differences in the latencies of the Froot Loop and Snickers rewarded rats, we conclude that the subjects did not discriminate between the two tastes. Both motivated the rats to the same level. - The T-Maze is a very small and simple maze however our subjects latencies were very long and often the subject sat around the treat for a long period of time before finally eating it and thus concluding the trial. This reaffirms the importance of mild food deprivation in animal subjects when using a food reward. Despite the fact that we thought both of our rewards would be highly desirable, and the rats in the Froot Loop group had previously (under food deprivation) always shown interest in that reward, under a free-feeding condition the rats were not especially motivated to want the reward. (They did the task and didn’t take the reward. References Chance, P. (2006). Learning and behavior: Active learning edition (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. Simmons, R. (1924). The relative effectiveness of certain incentives in animal learning. Comparative Psychology Monographs, 7. Elliot, M. H. (1928). The effects of change of reward on the maze performance of rats. University of California Publications in Psychology, 4, Kelly, A., Laroche, S., & Davis, S. (2003). Activation of mitogen- activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase in hippocampal circuitry is required for consolidation and reconsolidation of recognition memory. The Journal of Neuroscience. 12, Results There was no significant difference in latency to complete the task between the familiar reward group (Froot Loops, M = 734, SD = 473) and the novel reward group (Snickers, M = 312, SD = 93) t(5) = -1.52, p >.05. Figure 1 Figure 2