Abstract
This study is concerned with the relation between the change of intensity of illumination introduced after giving some amount of training and the influence of that change on the trained response.
The experiment was run in 2 × 2 designs of conditions. The change of illumination of which intensities were 180 Lux to one group of rats and 18 Lux to another was introduced into a simple runway after groups of rats had received 18, or 36 reinforced training trials, and the rewards were continued to be given during test trials as well as during training trials. It was assumed in this case that the response decrement induced by the change of illumination of strong intensity (i. e., 180 Lux) would be more significantly different from that induced by the change of illumination of weak intensity (i. e., 18 Lux) when the same amount of training was given to animals, because the strong curiosity drive should be evoked by the illumination of strong intensity, and moreover, the more the training given before introducing that change, the greater would be the relative response decrement brought about.
The results showed that no relative response decrement (i. e., the increasing of running time) was induced by any change of illumination introduced after giving 18 training trials, but that the response decrement was significantly induced only by the change of illumination of weak intensity introduced after giving 36 training trials. There were no significant results in relation to latency.
It was suggested that these results are compatible with BINDRA'S view at least concerning with the response decrement induced by the stimulus change as a function of amount of training. But so far as we were concerned with the illumination, these results require further discussions on the nature of exploratory response provided by it.
