That experiences early in life affect the subsequent behavioral development of the organism is well documented (Beach & Jaynes, 1954). However, there have been relatively few studies concerned with the effects of prenatal influences on behavior.There seems to be little doubt that a great many constitutional defects in both human and infrahuman organisms are directly traceable to prenatal influences. Sontag (1941) and Fraser and Fains tat (1951) review evidence which strongly supports this assertion.If the developing fetus can be affected by stressor agents, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that these agents might influence the behavioral development and subsequent adjustment of the organism. This hypothesis has been favored by an accumulation of evidence from many disciplines, including population biology (Christian, 1959), teratology (Baxter & Fraser, 1950), clinical medicine (Strean & Peer, 1956), and experimental psychology (Thompson, 1957;Thompson & Sontag, 1956). Thompson and Sontag (1956) subjected albino rats to massive audiogenic seizures during gestation. The offspring from these animals were tested at 39 days of age and again at 60 days of age. In a water maze, the nonseizure controls took significantly fewer trials to reach criterion and made fewer errors.Using hooded rats, Thompson (1957) found that offspring of "stressed" mothers showed startling behavioral differences when compared with the offspring of the controls. He tested the offspring at 30 to 40 days of age and again at 130 to 140 days of age. When com-1 This paper is based on a thesis submitted by the author to the Psychology Department of Brown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MS degree.

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