Frustration, exploration, and learning.

Abstract

D. E. Berlyne's principle that uncertainty leads to exploration is extended to situations involving frustrativc nonreward. Both empirical evidence and logical analysis support the frustration-exploration hypothesis, which posits that uncertain frustration leads to exploration, whose primary function is to broaden the scope of response selection. The facilitative effects of frustration-motivated exploration in learning are documented, and their implications for education are discussed. One of Daniel Berlyne's abiding interests was in curiosity and exploration. Perhaps, among his many significant contributions to psychology, his work in this area has made the greatest impact. His 1960 monograph Conflict, Arousal and Curiosity is among the 100 books most cited by social scientists (Garfield, 1978). Few will disagree that it is mainly due to Berlyne's influ-ence that exploration or information seeking has been elevated to the same status as hedonism as one of the primary sources of motivation. In view of the prevalence of information seeking (Berlyne, 1966), a case may be made that it is a more important motivation than the pursuit of hedonic goals. In paying tributes to Berlyne, I cannot help but reminisce on the good old days of being a grad-uate student at the University of Toronto, when both Daniel Berlyne and Abram Amsel were on the psychology faculty. To be taught by these two eminent psychologists was to be influenced by them in a profound way. Although different in many ways in their approaches to research, both of them demonstrated a remarkable degree of independence of thought in the midst of shift-ing paradigms and changing fashions in psycho-logical research. While Amsel concentrated his Portions of this paper were presented in a symposium in honour of the late D. E. Berlyne at the Canadian Psycho-

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