Effect of food deprivation upon the rat's behavior in its home cage.

Abstract
15 rats were observed in their home cages by sampling their behavior across time to determine how activity varies with deprivation and as a function of the time of day. A hungry group was maintained for 12 days on a 24-hr. feeding cycle; the control group was maintained on ad lib. food and water. The activity of the hungry group was only found to differ from its own ad lib. baseline activity or from the activity of the control group on the last 4 deprivation days. At that time hungry Ss were significantly more active than control Ss, but the changed pattern of activity is attributed to conditioning rather than to a direct activating effect of deprivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)