Spontaneous Alternation in the Mongolian Gerbil: A Methodological Comment

Five experiments designed to determine the extent to which gerbils (respective Ns = 10, 20, 20, 12, 12) rely on olfactory cues in the spontaneous alternation situation were conducted. In none of the experiments did the alternation rates exceed chance levels. The results are analyzed from the perspective of the relative inaptness of group design research in psychology. Rather, what is required in the discipline is stimulus control of behavior, not statistical control. In this context, the experiments reported here demonstrated that some gerbils alternate while others do not.