GROUPS OF NAIVE RATS LEARN TO SELECT NUTRITIONALLY ADEQUATE FOODS FASTER THAN DO ISOLATED NAIVE RATS

Naive juvenile Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, were housed either indi vidually or in groups of six and were given 10-days ad libitum access to three palatable, protein-deficient diets and a single, less palatab le, protein-rich diet. Although subjects housed in groups ate the same amount of food as did subjects housed alone, group-housed animals bot h ate more protein-rich diet and grew more rapidly than did individual ly housed subjects.