Insight in the white rat: spontaneous interconnection of two repertoires in Rattus norvegicus

ABSTRACT

The spontaneous interconnection of repertoires is what behavior analysis has to offer as an account of the “Insight” phenomena found in animal cognition studies since the beginning of the 20th century. The majority of the data concerning the spontaneous interconnection of repertoires was obtained with pigeons, although there are a few studies with other species such as crows and humans. No study at this date showed the interconnection of repertoires in a common lab subject, the albino rat. The objective of the present study was to see if the interconnection of repertoires occurred after the training of two separated repertoires: (a) digging shavings and (b) climbing stairs. The final task required the rats dig to find a tunnel beneath shavings that gave access to stairs that lead to food. Six rats (Rattus norvegicus) were tested. Rats that received training on both repertoires (n = 2) solved the final problem in less than 3 minutes, showing a topography that fits the description of an insightful solution. Rats that learned just one of the two repertoires (only to dig, n = 2; or only to climb, n = 2) did not solve the task. These four rats were then subjected to a brief training of the repertoire not trained, and after that, they were re-tested. Only one of them solved the problem in the second test, showing a different topography of resolution compared to the two rats that solved the problem in the first test. The data demonstrated that rats showed the spontaneous interconnection of two independently acquired repertoires, when given the right task. It also indicated that more studies involving the parametric relations between quantities and order of training of prerequisite repertoires are necessary, since the mere brief training of one of the lacking abilities to solve a task, after the first test, did not yield the same topography of resolution as when the two repertoires were concomitantly trained.

KEYWORDS:

• Interconnection of repertoires
• insight
• problem solving
• creativity
• rats

Additional information

Funding

The first author was supported by the doctorate grant of the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPQ, Brazil, and the second author was supported by the scientific initiation grant, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.