Developmental Psychobiology Ontogeny of Sociality 
Species recognition, affiliative behavior, attachment, huddling, social learning, and olfactory preferences are recurring themes in our research program. Most of our studies have used rats, but presently we are focusing more attention on mice (Mus musculus), including some fascinating genetic constructs.
Selected Publications
Alberts, J. R. (1978). Huddling by rat pups: Multisensory control of contact behavior. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 92(2), 220-230. PDF
Alberts, J. R., & Brunjes, P. C. (1978). Ontogeny of thermal and olfactory determinants of huddling in the rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 92(5), 897-906. PDF
Alberts, J. R. (1984). Ontogeny of social recognition: An essay in mechanism and metaphor in behavioral development. In E. S. Gollin (Ed.), Comparative development of adaptive skills: Evolutionary implications (pp. 65-99). New Jersey: L. Erlbaum Assoc.
Alberts, J. R., & May, B. (1984). Nonnutritive, thermotactile induction of filial huddling in rat pups. Developmental Psychobiology, 17(2), 161-181. PDF
Alberts, J. R., & Cramer, C. P. (1988). Ecology and experience: Sources of means and meaning of developmental change. In E. M. Blass (Ed.), Handbook of behavioral neurobiology (Vol. 9, pp. 1-39). New York: Plenum Publishing Corp.
Gerrish, C. J., & Alberts, J. R. (1995). Differential influence of adult and juvenile conspecifics on feeding by weanling rats (Rattus norvegicus): A size-related explanation. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 109(1), 61-67. PDF
Schank, J. C., & Alberts, J. R. (1997). Self-organized huddles of rat pups modeled by simple rules of individual behavior. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 189(1), 11-25. PDF
Schank, J. C., & Alberts, J. R. (1997). Aggregation and the emergence of social behavior in rat pups modeled by simple rules of individual behavior. In Y. Bar-Yam (Ed.), International Conference on Complex Systems (pp. 1-8). Nashua, NH: New England Complex Systems Institute.
Schank, J. C., & Alberts, J. R. (2000). The developmental emergence of coupled activity as cooperative aggregation in rat pups. Proc Biol Sci, 267(1459), 2307-2315. PDF
Honeycutt, H., & Alberts, J. R. (2005). Housing pregnant mice (Mus musculus) in small groups facilitates the development of odor-based homing in offspring. Journal of comparative psychology, 119(4), 418-429. PDF
Alberts, J. R. (2007). Huddling by rat pups: Ontogeny of individual and group behavior. Developmental Psychobiology, 49(1), 22-32. PDF
Kojima, S., & Alberts, J. R. (2009). Maternal care can rapidly induce an odor-guided huddling preference in rat pups. Developmental Psychobiology, 51(1), 95-105. PDF