ArticleBehavioural processes2018
To free, or not to free: Social reinforcement effects in the social release paradigm with rats.
Article in Behavioural processes, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cortical and subcortical activities during food rewards versus social interaction in rats.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Norway rats recruit cooperation partners based on previous receipt of help while disregarding kinship.iScience · 2024Article
- Shaping behaviors through social experience and their proposed sensitivity to stress.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2024Review
- No evidence tube entrapment distresses rodents in typical empathy tests.Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Assessment of help value affects reciprocation in Norway rats.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Spontaneous helping in pigs is mediated by helper's social attention and distress signals of individuals in need.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Why help others? Insights from rodent to human early childhood research.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
- Social familiarity and reinforcement value: a behavioral-economic analysis of demand for social interaction with cagemate and non-cagemate female rats.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Dynamic influences on the neural encoding of social valence.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2022Review
- No preference for prosocial helping behavior in rats with concurrent social interaction opportunities.Learning & behavior · 2021Article
- Article
- An opinion on the interpretation of social release in rats.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Body language signals for rodent social communication.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2021Review
- Complex Housing, but Not Maternal Deprivation Affects Motivation to Liberate a Trapped Cage-Mate in an Operant Rat Task.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
- Failure to Find Altruistic Food Sharing in Rats.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Restoration of prosocial behavior in rats after heroin self-administration via chemogenetic activation of the anterior insular cortex.Social neuroscience · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The present research measured social reinforcement in rats, using a social-release procedure in which lever presses permitted 10-s access to a familiar social partner. The work requirements for reinforcement increased systematically according to progressive-ratio (PR) schedules. Social and food reinforcement value were compared across blocks of sessions (Experiment 1) and concurrently within the same sessions (Experiment 2). To assess motivational effects, response and reinforcer rates for both reinforcer types were studied under food restriction, social restriction, and combined food and social restriction. Responding was maintained by both reinforcers, albeit at substantially higher levels for food than for social access. Responding for social access decreased to low levels under extinction conditions, demonstrating functional control by the social-reinforcement contingency. Sensitivity to social restriction was seen in some conditions in Experiment 2, in which social reinforcers were earned earlier in the session (at lower food prices) under social restriction than under the other deprivation conditions. Altogether, results are consistent with a social reinforcement conceptualization, and demonstrate an important role for social contact in social release behavior. The study demonstrates a promising set of methods for analyzing and quantifying social reinforcement.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.