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Animals that are prevented from continuing some activity (e.g., attacking, copulating) tend to engage either in the same sort of activity toward another object or in a completely different activity (e.g., grooming, preening). A popular interpretation of this phenomenon among psychologists and ecologists is in terms of a displacement mechanism through which it is assumed the energy of one reaction system is drained off into another, following Freud's early formulation. Bindra, rejecting this line of explanation as vague and ad hoc, offers an alternative explanation in terms of the operation of three factors: 1. An obstructing event brings about an increased level of excitation in the animal. 2. This heightening of excitation alters the relative probabilities of occurrence of the various activities that exist in the animal's repertoire, the condition of heightened excitement favoring those activities which were initially acquired or recently practiced at such a high arousal-level and those activities that have, in general, been practiced frequently. 3. Any activity in the animal's repertoire can occur only within a certain range of variation of the sensory cues with which that activity is associated. In support of his thesis, Bindra offers the observation that many so-called displacement activities, thumb-sucking in children, grazing in sheep, and preening in birds, have high habit strength. He suggests that the man who is provoked by his boss but does not act aggressively in the office would be less likely to act aggressively with his wife or children (rather than more aggressively, as the displacement mechanism theory would have it). Since he proposes that the behavior following obstruction would be determined by the sensory cues currently active in the animal or human, not by any residual 'energy' made superfluous by the obstruction, he predicts that the man provoked by his boss at the office would react aggressively toward his wife only if that is one of t