FACTORS IN LEARNING BY WHITE RATS 353 



Tables II and III show many evidences of effects of frequency 

 and recency factors. For instance, Rat 11 (Table II) returned 

 rather regularly in the first trial from cul de sac 5 ; in the second 

 trial it went into 8 and returned from there three times — once 

 entering 8 twice in immediate succession — and got its forward 

 orientation again rather regularly at 4; in the third trial blind 

 alley 3 became effective in turning the animal forward from 

 returns. It will be noticed that in this trial the animal entered 

 4 on the forward run, due likely to the frequent entrances to 

 4 in the second trial, and that this led to a confusion and a 

 return to 3. 



It should not be overlooked, however, that some of these 

 repetitive entrances to blind alleys may be due more to the 

 position of these cul de sacs in the maze (i.e., to the physical 

 circumstances of the learning situation) than to frequency and 

 recency. This seems particularly to be true of cul de sac 5 in 

 the B-mazes and of 4 in Maze IA. The effect of such physical 

 conditions is obviously to increase considerably in the early 

 trials the apparent effects of frequency and recency factors as 

 these are determined in the present paper. Making allowance 

 for such matters, we find that the influence for learning of fre- 

 quency and recency in the early trials is surprisingly small. In 

 many cases, as has been pointed out, the influence of these fac- 

 tors is against learning, other factors having to throw the re- 

 sponses out of frequency channels. These other factors are in 

 all probability visceral; they are larger bodily reactions away 

 from monotonous repetitions which are unprofitable to the entire 

 organism. Of late these factors seem to have been neglected 

 in psychology under the dominance of the too mechanistic 

 associationism. Physiologists in work like that of Professor 

 Cannon on emotional responses are reminding us that the organ- 

 ism after all reacts in a unitary way according to its own organic 

 needs. It would seem that while pleasantness and unpleasant- 

 ness are likely not in themselves causal factors in behavior 12 

 these affective " states " are plainly indicative of visceral par- 

 ticipation — probably inhibitions and facilitations which we have 

 yet to discover — in the learning process. 



A detailed study of the seventeen individual records is inter- 



12 Peterson, Jos. Completeness of Response as an Explanation Principle in 

 Learning. Psychol. Rev., 1916, 23, 153-162. 



