Table 2.

Overview of ethological techniques used to investigate social and cognitive behavioral traits in prairie voles.

Socio-cognitive traits and related tests	Example references
Anhedonia (e.g., sucrose preference test, forced swim test)	(Grippo et al., 2008b)
Anxiety (e.g., elevated plus maze, open field test, light-dark box test)	(Insel et al., 1995; Sun et al., 2014)
Empathy and social contagion (e.g., consolation test, social-facilitated drinking)	(Anacker et al., 2011; Burkett et al., 2016)
Mating strategies (e.g., radiotelemetry, powder tracking, RFID tagging)	(Jike et al., 1988; Sabol et al., 2018)
Pair bond formation and maintenance (e.g., partner preference test, selective aggression “resident-intruder” test)	(Williams et al., 1992b; Insel et al., 1995; PPT protocol Beery, 2021 this issue)
Parental care (e.g., pup retrieval)	(Wang et al., 1994)
Social reward (e.g., conditioned place preference, operant conditioning)	(Goodwin et al., 2019; Matthews et al., 2013; Lee and Beery, 2021)
Spatial memory (e.g., Morris swim task)	(Sawrey et al., 1994)