Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 21, Issue 2, May 1973, Pages 205-235
Animal Behaviour

Tests for emotionality in rats and mice: A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(73)80065-XGet rights and content

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of emotionality, particularly in relation to measures taken in ‘novel environment’ tests (e.g. the open field). Evidence of several different types is reviewed to assess the validity of the measures in relation to common assumptions underlying their use. In response to increased light and noise, open field defecation increases and ambulation decreases, and thus on this basis they may be termed emotional responses. In many cases defecation and ambulation in the open field showed a fairly low but significant inverse correlation. Nevertheless, a number of limitations to this relationship were found, depending on the species, strain, sex, sample size, and early experience; other, presumed, measures of emotionality in the open field showed little consistent relationship to defecation, but the evidence here was sparse. Studies measuring heart-rate responses provided insufficient evidence to relate open field defecation to this other response presumed to be under sympathetic nervous control. Ambulation showed little descriptive validity as a measure of exploration; owing to the occurrence of both immobility and escape behaviour as alternative forms of emotional behaviour, ambulation also provided an inadequate indication of emotional responses. Thus, conceptual frameworks which suggested that emotionality energized ambulation in a consistent manner were criticized. Open field defecation showed little relationship to supposed measures of emotionality taken in other types of tests (e.g. emergence tests, active avoidance learning); these findings clearly failed to support the use of emotionality as a consistent constitutional trait, with unitary drive properties. Two alternative methods were suggested, for testing: (a) responses to novel environments, and (b) emotional behaviour, without making assumptions that the measures represent unitary major motivational constructs.

References (167)

  • AderR.

    Andrenocortical function and the measurement of emotionality

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (1969)
  • AderR. et al.

    Prenatal maternal anxiety and offspring emotionality in the rat

    Psychol. Rep.

    (1962)
  • AderR. et al.

    Handling of pregnant rats: effects on emotionality of their offspring

    Science, N.Y.

    (1963)
  • AderR. et al.

    ‘Emotionality’, and adrenal cortical function: effects of strain, test, and the 24-hr corticosterone rhythm

    Anim. Behav.

    (1967)
  • AderR. et al.

    Effects of prenatal maternal handling and differential housing on offspring emotionality, plasma corticosterone levels and susceptibility to gastric erosions

    Psychosom. Med.

    (1968)
  • AitkenP.P.

    Fear levels and rats' open field activity and defaecation

    Psychon. Sci.

    (1970)
  • AndersonE.E.

    The interrelationships of drives in the male albino rat. III. Interrelations among measures of emotional, sexual and exploratory behaviour

    J. genet. Psychol.

    (1938)
  • Andrew, R. J. & Hall, T. J. (in preparation). Arousal and the causation of...
  • ArcherJ.E.

    Sex differences in emotional behaviour: a reply to Gray and Buffery

    Acta Psychol.

    (1971)
  • ArcherJ.E.

    The influence of testosterone on chick behavior in novel environments

    Behav. Biol.

    (1973)
  • ArcherJ.E. et al.

    Prenatal psychological stress and offspring behavior in rats and mice

    Developmental Psychbiol.

    (1971)
  • BanerjeeU.

    Influence of pseudopregnancy and sex hormones on conditioned behaviour in rats

    Neuroendocrinol.

    (1971)
  • BaronA.

    Differential effects of fear on activity in novel and familiar environments

    Psychol. Rep.

    (1963)
  • BaronA.

    Suppression of exploratory behaviour by aversive stimulation

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1964)
  • BattigK.

    Drug effects on exploration of a combined maze and open field system by rats

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (1969)
  • BeattyW.W. et al.

    Hormonal determinants of sex differences in avoidance behavior and reactivity to electric shock in the rat

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1970)
  • BerlyneD.E.
  • BielW.C. et al.

    The effect of cortical lesions on emotional and regressive behavior in the rat

    J. comp. Psychol.

    (1940)
  • BillingsleaF.Y.

    The relationship between emotionality and various other salients of behavior in the rat

    J. comp. Psychol.

    (1941)
  • BillingsleaF.Y.

    Intercorrelational analysis of certain behavior salients in the rat

    J. comp. Psychol.

    (1942)
  • BindraD.
  • BindraD. et al.

    Response to different degrees of novelty: the incidence of various activities

    J. exp. Anal. Behav.

    (1958)
  • BindraD. et al.

    An evaluation of defaecation and urination as measures of fearfulness

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1953)
  • BlizardD.

    Autonomic and behavioural correlations of emotionality

  • BlizardD.

    Autonomic reactivity in the rat: effects of genetic selection for emotionality

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1971)
  • BlizardD.

    Individual differences in autonomic responsivity in the adult rat: neonatal influences

    Psychosom. Med.

    (1971)
  • BlizardD.

    Situational determinants of open field behaviour in Mus musculus

    Br. J. Psychol.

    (1971)
  • BollesR.C.

    Grooming behavior in the rat

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1960)
  • BoylesW.R. et al.

    Early experience and cardiac responsivity in the female albino rat

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1965)
  • BrainP.F. et al.

    Some behavioural and endocrine relationships in adult laboratory mice subjected to open field and aggression tests

    Physiol. Behav.

    (1969)
  • BranniganC.R.

    Exploratory behaviour in the laboratory rat

  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Determinants of emotionality in the rat. I. Situational factors

    Br. J. Psychol.

    (1957)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Emotionality and the Yerkes-Dodson law

    J. exp. Psychol.

    (1957)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Determinants of emotionality in the rat. II. Antecedent factors

    Br. J. Psychol.

    (1958)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Determinants of emotionality in the rat. III. Strain differences

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1958)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    A Crespi effect' in the analysis of emotionality as a drive in rats

    Br. J. Psychol.

    (1958)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Experiments in psychogenetics: applications of biometrical genetics to the inheritance of behaviour

  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Analysis of maternal effects in the inheritance of behaviour

    Anim. Behav.

    (1961)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    A note on further progress in a psychogenetic selection experiment

    Psychol. Rep.

    (1962)
  • BroadhurstP.L.

    Psychogenetics of emotionality in the rat

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (1969)
  • BroadhurstP.L. et al.

    Correlative effects of psychogenetic selection: A study of the Roman high and low avoidance strains of rats

    Behav. Res. & Therapy

    (1965)
  • BroadhurstP.L. et al.

    Interpretations of exploratory behaviour in the rat

  • BroadhurstP.L. et al.

    Stability and change in the inheritance of behaviour: A further analysis of statistics from a diallel cross

    Proc. Roy. Soc. B

    (1966)
  • BroadhurstP.L. et al.

    Brain cholinesterase, body build and emotionality in different strains of rats

    Anim. Behav.

    (1964)
  • BruellJ.H.

    Dominance and segregation in the inheritance of quantitative behaviour in mice

  • BruellJ.H.

    Behavioral heterosis

  • BruellJ.H.

    Genetics and adaptive significance of emotional defaecation in mice

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (1969)
  • CandlandD.K. et al.

    Development of fear in the rat as measured by behaviour in the open field

    J. comp. physiol. Psychol.

    (1962)
  • CandlandD.K. et al.

    Parameters affecting adaptation to and retention of open field elimination in the rat

    Anim. Behav.

    (1965)
  • CandlandD.K. et al.

    The open field: some comparative data

    Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

    (1969)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text