Choice alternation: I. Stimulus vs. place vs. response.

Abstract

1"Spontaneous allernalion" is a descriptive term which has been applied lo the often observed tendency of rats to behave in an orderly rather than a random fashion when presented with a Iwo-choice alternative more than once in close succession. Empirically, if an animal turns left in a T maze on its first trial, and if it is immediately returned to the starling point, the probability is quite high that it will turn right on the second trial.This systematic tendency to alternate choices has assumed considerable theoretical importance. Solomon (7) related it to Hull's ''reactive inhibition" (I K ). Montgomery (4, 5, 6) found the phenomenon related to the stimulus present and attempted to explain it as a manifestation of exploratory behavior. Glanzer (1, 2) independently verified Montgomery's findings and explained the behavior in terms of ''stimulus satiation."The present, experiment stems from the logic and methods used by Montgomery and Glanzer. Both experimenters performed, among others, an experiment based on this kind of reasoning. Suppose we have a T maze with one arm painted white and one painted black. If an animal is placed in such a maze and turns left to the white stimulus, and on a second trial alternates and thus turns right to the black stimulus, it has alternated both the response (L, R) and the stimulus (w, b). It can be seen that the stimulus and the response in such a situation are confounded.If one asks the question, "Is the animal alternating with respect to the stimulus or to the response?" it is necessary to arrange a situation in which the animal can do either one but not both.Both Montgomery and Glanzer achieved this objective by using a +-shapecl maze. This was accomplished by adding an additional starting stem apposed to the original one. Now if an animal turns left to the while

Reinforcing properties of arousal.

“…That is "resnonse was found to have little, if any, importance; place had a considerable importance; and the stimulus had more importance than place" (Walker, Dember, Earl and Karoly, 1955).…”

The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map

“…It is clear that normal animals rarely alternate responses (in the sense of left or right turns) per se, but rather alternate the place to which they go, or the particular stimuli they approach (e.g. Walker et al 1955). Alternation tends to increase as the animals are confined for longer periods in the initially chosen goal area, and it has been suggested that something akin to stimulus satiation accounts for this effect (Glanzer 1953b).…”

Spontaneous alternation of brightness?

“…Pate & DeLoache (1970) stated that several investigators (Glanzer, 1953;O'Connell, 1964;Walker, Dember, Earl, & Karoly, 1955) claimed to have found spontaneous alternation of visual stimuli. This is one-third incorrect.…”