Effect of Previous Exploratory Activity on the Exploration of a Simple Maze

Abstract

THERE has been a good deal of discussion about the nature of the motivation involved in exploratory behaviour, and various theories have been put forward^1–3. Most such theories suppose that this motivation is aroused directly by novel stimuli, and therefore that the strength of the motivation is relatively immune to deprivation effects. On the whole the experimental evidence bears out this view, though what may possibly be a deprivation effect has been found with visual exploration in monkeys⁴. Another type of test has not, however, been used. If we wish to examine a motivation such as hunger we can vary the period of deprivation and see how this affects the subsequent behaviour; alternatively we can use a fixed period of deprivation, give the animals varying amounts to eat, and see whether this appears to alter drive level. The first procedure has been attempted in the exploratory case with negative results (in rats at least)⁵; the second procedure has not. If the motivation involved ‘builds up’ in the rat when it is not exploring and is reduced by exploration, then exploration of one environment should reduce the motivation and so reduce the amount of exploration, immediately afterwards, of another quite different environment. If, on the other hand, the motivation is aroused primarily by the stimuli in the environment, then exploration of one environment should not reduce subsequent exploration of another dissimilar environment.