I couldnt really find any of the links that deal directly with the effects of cage dynamics online, unless you belong to the Wiley Online Library. There is an amazing book that has a few of them called The Health and Welfare of Captive Reptiles, which was edited by Warwick, Frye, and Murphy, and another called The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals. Ill warn you though, they are both kind of ridiculously expensive unless you find a used copy.
As to Aaron's and Red Ink's comments about enclosure enrichment, they sound eerily close to what was said about chimps and other 'higher' animals about 50 years ago. Back then, nobody thought there was any reason to add enrichment to those animals cages either, because, hey, theyre just animals. After we got better at recognizing the signs of stress and anxiety in them though, we discovered that we do need to give them a rich environment for them to really thrive. Again, not to keep them alive, but to really make them thrive. And it only makes sense; if you put an animal from the wild into a barren plastic tub there is going to be some sort of detrimental effect on the brain. I think perhaps we are coming to that point in reptiles as well. Im not saying that a barren cage will make them crazy, just that a more enriched environment will lead to a healthier animal.
As to your comment about handling, Aaron, I am starting to agree, although this may indeed be a very species specific idea. Here are a couple articles I was reading the other day about it:
Effect of husbandry manipulations on respiratory rates in captive bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps)
http://www.rogermeekherpetology.com/...tion%20HND.pdf
Physiological and behavioural effects of handling and restraint in the ball Python (Python regius) and the blue tongued skink (Tiliqua scincoides)
Elsevier
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