An analysis of the limited access measure of social dominance in rats

The limited access situation in which only one of two or more subjects can gain access to a reward during a restricted time-period is an accepted measure of dominance in the rat. This study attempts to validate the technique by establishing the relationship between individual and competitive performance in order to determine whether ‘priority of access’ has been measured. The generality of the competitive orders is examined by altering the competitive response while retaining the same reward. In view of the data collected for both time and weight-gain measures in food and water competition it is doubtful whether the limited access competitive technique can be considered a valid measure of dominance for the laboratory rat.