INTRINSIC EXPLORATION IN ANIMALS - MOTIVES AND MEASUREMENT

Intrinsic exploration involves exploratory acts that are not instrumen tal in achieving any particular goal other than performance of the act s themselves. Of the theories proposed to account for the motivation o f intrinsic exploration in animals, concepts of exploratory drive, opt imal arousal and fear have featured prominently. But since no single a pproach has adequate explanatory or predictive power, it is probably s ufficient to go no further than accept that organisms may have some ty pe of 'need' for sensory change which can be satisfied mainly by intri nsic exploration. Attempts to measure the phenomenon in the laboratory can be divided into forced tests in which locomotion and other motor responses are recorded in animals placed into a totally novel environm ents, and free tests involving measurements of active choices of diffe ring degrees of novelty. Because of the difficulty of distinguishing b etween extrinsic and intrinsic exploration with activity indices, test s of free exploration are always preferable. These include novelty-rel ated location preferences (including spontaneous alternation and respo nses to brightness change), object exploration and learning for explor atory rewards all of which can be viewed as reasonably valid measures of intrinsic exploration to a greater or lesser extent. (C) 1997 Elsev ier Science B.V.