Abstract
dc:description.abstractAn integrated series of experiments was conducted to investigate an initial failure to replicate the maternal pheromone effect in the rat. It examined:1. Apparatus parameters (airflow rate)2. Pup factors (age, pre-test maternal deprivation, early experience)3. Maternal factors (diet, strains; PVG/C, Wistar, Sprague-Dawley)Publications on the maternal pheromone present a miriad of problems; methodological, conceptual and statistical, and a visit to two of the North American laboratories, where work on the pheromone is being pursued, failed to resolve these difficulties. The phenomenon is not as robust as the literature would suggest.Final experiments, using a simplified method, showed that pre-weanling rats are influenced by olfactory cues; throughout the whole study the young had shown a slight preference for maternally derived odours.Use of the term "pheromone", in connection with mammalian behaviour, is criticised. In particular it is concluded, that there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of a maternal pheromone in the rat.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- PhD
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Hull
- Year dc:date.issued
- 1979
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Clegg, Frances Margaret
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Williams, D. I. (David Islwyn)
Subjects
dc:subject × 1Rights
- Language dc:language
- en
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Identifier
- oai:hull-repository.worktribe.com:4213858
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:hull-repository.worktribe.com:4213858