Effects of habituation to fear on the exploratory behaviour of rats [34]

Abstract

I PROPOSED earlier1,2 that mild fear facilitates exploratory behaviour whereas strong fear inhibits it. If an animal is placed in a maze, with time it becomes habituated to the fear aroused by the maze stimuli. It is therefore to be expected that, at first, strong fear will inhibit the exploratory behaviour of rats, but with time the fear should become milder and exploratory behaviour will be facilitated. Eventually the level of fear of the rats should be minimal and exploratory behaviour of the rats will sink to some base level. © 1968 Nature Publishing Group.