The influence of early auditory experience on later auditory and tactual variation seeking in the rat

Albino rats were raised under 1 of 4 conditions of auditory stimulation from 22-35 days of age. At 40 days, preferences for auditory and tactual variation were assessed in separate runway tests. Results were analyzed in a split-plot design for each of 2 measures of variation seeking. Subjects experiencing more-variable early stimulation scored higher than subjects receiving less-variable stimulation on 1 measure of variation-seeking and lower on the 2nd measure. The effect was intermodal since these results were obtained for tactual as well as auditory variation seeking.