Satiation and Exploratory Activity

Abstract

IN his interesting article “Effect of a Previous Exploratory Activity on the Exploration of a Simple Maze”1, Dr. M. S. Halliday states that most theories suppose that the motivation involved in exploratory activity is aroused directly by novel stimuli, and that the strength of the motivation involved will therefore have little or no relation to deprivation. The other type of theory, by contrast, suggests that motivation might build up in the rat when it is not exploring and would be reduced by exploration. Thus 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, exploration of one environment should not reduce exploration of another dissimilar environment.