Intra-maze delay of reinforcement

Many investigations have been conducted to examine the effect of delay of reinforcement upon performance of organisms. It has been found in general that response strength is some decreasing function of the length of delay and of the distance from delay of reinforcement. Besides the associative interpretation of consequences of delay of reinforcement, some investigators (Amsel 1952; Brown & Farber, 1951) constructed a motivation theory to explain behavioral phenomena of the consequence of thwarting on-going behavior chain. They assume that delay of reinforcement is one of the conditions which result in frustration. Such postulated frustration was presumably to have a functional status to increase the general motivational level of the organisms. Any responses which accompany or follow this state will be strengthened. According to Brown and Farber's theory of frustration, the strength of frustration is some function of the length of delay of reinforcement. The present experiment was designed to examine the time function in delay of reinforcement and behavior change before and after delay of reinforcement.