Having trouble getting organized? Take the example of the rat

Even if the adage says that “perfection is not of this world”, human beings carry within them the desire to always do better, especially in the management and optimization of their time. But now researchers are showing that we are not the only ones who can self-assess ourselves in the performance of tasks, rats can too.

It is not always easy to estimate the duration what a task will take. Except for rats. These rodents are able to assess their performance and change their behavior accordingly to do better next time, according to a new international study published in the review PNAS this week.

The human being is not the only animal to be able to estimate a temporal error in its actions. Rats can too! We owe this discovery to researchers from the CNRS and the CEA, as well as a researcher from the Polish Academy of Sciences. The team of scientists tested the rats’ time management by developing a behavioral task during which rodents learned to press a lever for at least 3.2 seconds.

They are able to evaluate their performance

Secondly, two distributors delivered a reward in feeders depending on the performance of the animal. If he performed the requested task under 3.2 seconds, he received food in the manger of left. If necessary, in the one on the right. The rats could thus understand that they would receive a reward based solely on their accuracy.

Thirdly, the rodents had the choice between the two dispensers. They received a reward when they chose a particular feeder. The scientists found that the rats chose the dispenser that matched their timing error. The one on the left if they completed their assigned task in less than 3.2 seconds, and the one on the right if they took longer.

The researchers found that, on each trial, the rats rated the accuracy with which they performed the requested task. They were even able to estimate their margin of error. Contrary to what one might think, rats are animals endowed with great intelligence. Their good episodic memory allows them to retain multiple and distinct information from past experiences. They are even capable of solidarity andaltruismas demonstrated by a study conducted by Japanese scientists and another by researchers at the University of Chicago.