Social facilitation effects on runway and maze behavior in mice

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.

Mirror-image stimulation and short separations in stumptail monkeys

“…Mirror-image stimulation (MIS), that is, "situations in which an animal is confronted with its reflected image" (Gallup, 1968, p. 782), has been featured in numerous analyses of motivational and social phenomena in animals, for example, social facilitation in birds and rodents (e.g., Hamrick, Cogan, & Woolam, 1971), visual reinforcement and aggression in birds and fish (e.g., Cohen & Looney, 1973;Davis, Harris, & Shelby, 1974;Dore, Lefebvre, & Ducharme, 1978;Gallup & Capper, 1970), tonic immobility and egg-laying in birds Lott & Brody, 1966), and social responsiveness in rodents (Svendsen & Armitage, 1973). These studies indicate that MIS has social-stimulus properties (see Gallup, 1968), and the more recent studies also demonstrate differing reactions to mirrors and other individuals.…”