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WATER DEPRIVATION AND PERFORMANCE IN THE CLOSED FIELD TEST
Author(s) -
POLLARD J. S.,
LYSONS A. M.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1969.tb01195.x
Subject(s) - psychology , test (biology) , open field , developmental psychology , degree (music) , field (mathematics) , cognitive psychology , mathematics , ecology , pure mathematics , physics , psychiatry , acoustics , biology
Twenty male and 20 female Wistar rats were run in the Hebb‐Williams closed field test after 6, 12, 24 or 47 hr. deprivation of water. Performance was divided into two major components representing problem‐solving and exploratory behaviour. Increasing the degree of water deprivation had only a slight effect on problem‐solving but a marked effect on exploration. It was concluded that variations in motivational level have their effects on competing responses rather than capacity to learn or solve problems and that, for the comparative psychologist, equation of motivational level in different species may not be a serious problem if competing responses can be eliminated.