Observing a trained demonstrator influences associative appetitive learning in rats

The ability to acquire information about the environment through social observation or instruction is an essential form of learning in humans and other animals. Here, we assessed the ability of rats to acquire an association between a light stimulus and the presentation of a reward that is either hidden (sucrose solution) or visible (food pellet) via observation of a trained demonstrator. Subsequent training of observers on the light-reward association indicated that while observation alone was not sufficient for observers to acquire the association, contact with the reward location was higher in observers that had had a demonstrator when the light cue predicted a sucrose reward. Additionally, we found that in the visible reward condition, levels of demonstrator orienting and food cup contact during the observation period tended to be positively correlated with the corresponding behavior of their observer. This relationship was only seen during later sessions of observer training. Together, these results suggest that while our models were not sufficient to induce associative learning through observation alone, demonstrator behavior during observation did influence how their paired observer’s behavioral response to the cue evolved over the course of direct individual training.