The relation between fear and exploratory behavior.

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Abstract
The results of three experiments are summarized and the detailed findings of a fourth are presented. The purpose of these studies was to test the hypothesis that the exploratory behavior of rats in simple mazes is motivated by fear. Fear was induced just before a period of exploration by auditory stimulation in the first experiment and by electric shock in the second. Fear was induced either early or midway in a period of exploration by auditory stimulation in the third study and by shock in the fourth. Measurements of both amount and orderliness of exploratory behavior were recorded in the first three experiments; measurements of amount of exploratory behavior were taken in the fourth experiment. The following conclusions are drawn from the findings (I) Fear induced just before a period of exploration in a novel environment exerts little or no effect upon exploratory behavior in that environment; (2) Fear induced in a novel situation reduces amount of exploratory behavior in that situation, the decrement increasing in magnitude with strength of fear; (3) The decrease in amount of exploratory behavior produced by induced fear is explicable in terms of conflict theory; (4) The results of experiment IV provide a basis for postulating a new type of conflict: the "escape-avoidance" conflict; (5) Finally, exploratory behavior is not motivated by fear. Rather, it is motivated by the exploratory drive which is evoked by novel stimulation.

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