No abstract

Runway and maze acquisition and extinction performance of solitary, mirror-coaction, and audience groups of male albino mice were compared in an attempt to test Zajonc's theory of social facilitation. In each situation, one of the conspecific groups performed in a manner similar to the solitary group. The audience and solitary groups ran more slowly than the mirror group in the maze, and the mirror and solitary groups ran faster than the audience group in the runway. These findings failed to support predictions made from Zajonc's theory. Apparently nonallelomimetic mammalian species do not respond to social facilitation in the same way that nonallelomimetic insects (cockroaches) do.