Psychology Commons^™

Social Transmission Of Ethanol Preference In A Sign-Tracking Paradigm, Pat Severino

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Observer/ Demonstrator Effect suggests that rats can socially obtain preferences for novel foods/drugs by interacting with experienced conspecifics. Sign-tracking is a paradigm which uses a conditioning procedure to evoke compulsive-like behaviors directed towards a tangible conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with a motivating unconditioned stimulus (US). The present study investigated the possibility that increased alcohol use results from the combination of socially transmitted cues and the kind of conditioning effect seen in sign-tracking procedures. Therefore, it was hypothesized that social exposure to an alcohol-experienced conspecific would summate with the conditioning experience and increase the sign-tracking of a bottle CS containing …