Rats Need for Stimulation When patrolling, an rat tends to select the parts of its range not recently experienced. This can be seen even in a maze shaped like a Y or T, which gives the subject only one choice. A domesticated rat is put in the stem and, if it moves at all, it can move only left or right. If, after it has made a choice, it is put back in the stem, it nearly always walks into the other arm. Even in such cramped quarters, the rat prefers the less recently experienced condition. If both arms are empty, this spontaneous alternation continues. If, however, one arm leads to a dead end but the other to a spacious, well furnished area, the latter is preferred. Access to a complex environment is rewarding. So is the presence of any novelty, including both unfamiliar food pellets and also strange objects. Many experiments have shown this liking for variety. It is as if rats are easily bored and tire of what they experience every day. A problem for behavioral scientists, therefore, as for other researchers, is to design not only ingenious devices but also-much more difficult - to ask fruitful questions. As we now know, rats welcome novelty; they are neophilic. If they are released into a new environment, even if they have fasted for hours they move around and, at first, disregard any food they find. Priority is given to exploring. Many experiments have been done to find out just what kinds of variety rats will work for. By an anomaly, the Skinner Box has helped experimenters to answer such questions. It is an anomaly because their experiments have shown that habits are often not developed in the way assumed by Skinner; that is, solely by responding promptly to a reward or punishment. In a Skinner Box, rats will energetically press the lever to achieve no more than a slight noise. More interesting, they will also learn to turn a light on. This is not because they want more light, for they will also work to turn it off. Here evidently is again a liking for change. But, after some days, the behavior alters and the rats are likely to work for a dim light rather than a bright one. Perhaps they have become bored with the changes in lighting and are now voting for a preferred condition. Most of the relevant experiments, however, indicate a preference for stimulation, rather than peace and quiet. This liking is not a prerogative of Norways. The news of neophilia has increasingly spread among people who have the care of other mammals. What looks like boredom, as Miranda Stevenson has described, is a likely result of captivity for any mammal. She writes of the "appallingly little scientific research on the effects of different environmental stimuli and changes to the environment on the behavior of captive wild animals". But, now that zoos are increasingly concerned with protecting and breeding endangered species, this is changing. Source: the book "The Story of Rats" by S.A. Barnett