A NOTE ON THE INTERFERENCE OF VISUAL 

 HABITS IN THE WHITE RAT 



BINNIE D. PEARCE 

 From the Psychological Laboratory of the University of Texas 



INTRODUCTION 



The following experiments were performed at the University 

 of Texas under the supervision of Professor W. S. Hunter,, 

 from January to June, 1916. This paper should be considered 

 as a continuation of researches made by him and should be 

 read in connection with his paper on " The Interference of 

 Auditory Habits in the White Rat." 1 The purpose of the 

 present tests was to obtain data showing the strength of habit 

 in the white rat by measuring the effect of a habit previously 

 acquired upon the formation of a new habit of opposite char- 

 acter. The stimuli in each case were lights. The results appear 

 to reinforce the conclusions reached by Dr. Hunter, viz., that 

 a habit acquired by training does persist in the new work and 

 may interfere tremendously with the formation of a dissimilar 

 habit. My detailed conclusions will be presented at the close 

 of the paper. 



Figure 1. — Ground plan of the apparatus 



The apparatus used was a T-shaped discrimination box and 

 is shown in fig. 1. A mazda light was placed in a small box 



Jour. Animal Behav., 1917, 7, 49-65 



169 



