SOME ODD PROBLEMS FOR MODERN BEHAVIOR THEORV: THE CASE OF THE SWIMMING RATS

Abstract

The swimming situation has been used extensively to study the role of stress on the shortening of the rat's life expectancy, including its sudden death, In contrast, the present paper describes some experiments on conditions that improve their life expectancy in the same situation, The first experiment showed that the rat's activity in the water predicts its life expectancy. The second experiment showed that repeated exposures to the swimming situation improve the rat's chances of survival. The third experiment showed that the rat's life expectancy in the swimming situation increases more rapidly with frequent than with infrequent practice. In the last experiment rescuing the rat from the water was suggested to be more important to increase its life expectancy than simple exposure to the swimming situation. These results were discussed as evidence of the influence of known conditioning variables on the life expectancy of organisms.