An Investigation of Learning in a T-Maze with Relevant Drives Satisfied

Psychologists agree, in general, that the role of motivation in determining the behavior of organisms is an important one. However, different interpretations arise when one attempts to specify precisely what this role may be. Some psychologists believe that motivation serves only as a forcer or activator of behavior. Others hold that in addition to being an activator of behavior motivation must be reduced for learning to occur. Thus, field theorists such as Tolman and Leeper state that the acquisition of learning is not a function of the number of reinforcements, or drive state reductions. Rather, acquisition is dependent upon the temporal contiguity of the organism\u27s perceptions of successive stimuli, or signs and their significates. Once acquired, however, utilization of learning in the performance of a task is activated by an organism\u27s drive state