ABSTRACT
The rabbit has long been a favorite subject for neurological research and for many types of medical and cosmetological testing. Although the animal has been long used in these fields, it has, until relatively recently, been relatively little used in various behavioral studies, the preferred subjects generally being the rat, pigeon, dog, cat, and various primates. In the early 1960s, Gormezano and his students began a search for a preparation that would embody the best physical properties of the animal subject with the advantages of the classical conditioning or Pavlovian situation to produce an optimal model system for the study of Pavlovian conditioning. The animal would have to accept restraint, provide a convenient response system that was easily measured, be available at low cost, be easily cared for and have a low genetic variability. These traits would allow exact stimulus placement and delivery, accurate response measurement over successive trials and sessions, and large numbers of subjects to be run with minimal variability and low cost. These factors were necessary to fully exploit the particular advantages of the Pavlovian conditioning paradigm that include invariant stimulus delivery, well-defined stimulus-response relationships, and complete experimental control of event timing. The New Zealand white breed of rabbit fit the specifications for low genetic variability because it is an albino, readily bred and available, is docile (we have, over many years of handling the rabbit, been nipped at only once), and is not expensive in most locales. To this list of positive features can be added the fact that the rabbit can, after behavioral studies, be used as a food source by underpaid graduate students. Over a period of 1-2 years, Gormezano's group developed the techniques for restraining the rabbit and for presenting stimuli to, and recording various responses from, the restrained animal. The initial report of this preparation was presented in Science in 1962 (Schneiderman, Fuentes, & Gormezano, 1962) in a study showing classically conditioned eyelid responses in the rabbit. This was soon followed by a report (Gormezano, Schneiderman, Deaux, & Fuentes, 1962) showing conditioned responding of the nictitating membrane (NM) response and later (Deaux & Gormezano, 1963) by a study of classical conditioning of eyeball retraction in the rabbit. Over the next decade, the rabbit preparation was refined by Gormezano and his students, and used by others for similar studies, with the result that a great deal of data was collected from the preparation. Other preparations have followed. For example, in 1969, Rubin and Brown detailed the use of the rabbit in a Skinnerian conditioning situation, using lever pressing with the teeth as a response, and Swadlow has described another operant conditioning method (1970).
