A study of electric shock motivation in maze learning.

Abstract

The use of electric shock in learning experiments has been almost entirely confined to the procedure of administering the shocks only when certain particular acts, usually errors, occur during learning. Seldom has electric shock been used as the condition motivating the learning. In those studies involving a comparison of hunger and punishment, electric shocks have been used frequently as the form of punishment but were usually administered for errors only during the process of learning which was motivated by some other condition, e.g., hunger. Muenzinger and Fletcher (2, p. 87) have recently reported a study in which escape-from-shock was compared with hunger as the condition motivating the formation of a visual discrimination habit. Their results show "... greater effectiveness of shock alone over food alone." Further, that "the combination of the two methods of motivation, food and shock, produced the same learning efficiency as shock alone."The present study was conducted to determine the relative efficiency with which white rats master a difficult maze problem under the following conditions of motivation and practice: (a) hunger motivation; (b) hunger motivation with shocks administered in blind alleys as punishment for errors; (c) escape-fromshock motivation; (d) escape-from-shock and hunger motivation combined; (e) escape-from-shock motivation when the practice trials are massed instead of distributed as in the preceding conditions.

Short-term versus long-term effects of adrenal hormones on behaviors.

“…Continuous mild electric shock while in the maze impaired the maze-learning ability of rats (Bunch & Magdsick, 1938), while shock, cold water, and klaxon horns (Patrick, 1934) and psychological threat (Beier, 1951) have been found to reduce flexibility in the cognitive functioning of humans.…”

“…Earlier we noted that an immediate shortterm stressor, continuous electric shock, resulted in impaired maze learning in rats (Bunch & Magdsick, 1938). From the standpoint of activation theory, it could be argued that the continuous electric shock impaired maze learning because it produced too high a level of activation for efficient mastery of this complex task.…”

“…In this case, additional stress should, from the activation theory standpoint, produce still more activation and still worse learning. In the second phase of their study, Bunch and Magdsick (1938) did, in fact, measure maze learning under continuous mild electric shock in animals who had also been deprived of food for the previous 23 hours. This combination of stressors resulted in significantly better maze learning than electric shock alone.…”