Abstract
In a group of white rats who developed position stereotypes in a Water discrimination unit under conditions of low punishment, the behaviour of four animals was closely akin to what Maier calls “abnormal fixations.” The stereotype-extinction scores of subgroups containing these animals were distributed in separated clusters. Punishment differentiated response latencies, and this furnished evidence that the fixated animals had mastered the soluble problem in spite of not responding appropriately.
These findings and other findings from the same experiment, which were reported previously (Knöpfelmacher 1953), are interpreted as showing that though Maierian behaviour fixations were reproduced in a water discrimination unit, the properties of stereotypes are not compatible with the stress—frustration—fixation theory, at least on a molar level, and that goal—motivational learning theory can account for most though not all the data.
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