Operant Methods Assessing the Effects of ELF Electromagnetic Fields

Abstract

The recent surge of research on ELF electromagnetic radiation has devoted much concern to behavioral effects on animals. Frequently, the rationale for this research has been to reveal effects of ELF fields on physiological substrates manifested by the measured behavior. While this goal is laudable, such an approach often ignores the rich but orderly fabric of the primary dependent variable — behavior. The physiological bases of all but the simplest behaviors are, at best, obscure and likely to remain so in the absence of careful specification of the environmental variables of which behavior is a function. Thus analyses of the effects of ELF electromagnetic radiation (as well as other agents) on behavior should be pursued in its own right without the necessity to physiologize. Appropriately identified behavioral effects of ELF fields might prove of enormous significance. For example, Marr, Rivers, & Burns (1973) noted: “Considering the ubiquity of ELF electromagnetic fields of low intensity it is of considerable biological interest to determine whether they are detectable by organisms. If a species of organism could detect the presence of such fields, it might imply that natural fields play a role in controlling significant behaviors of the species.