ELIMINATION OF ERRORS IN THE MAZE 67 



rarely occurs. 5 The third error is the most common one. Start- 

 ing to the right, the rat retraces its path and goes to the left, 

 or vice versa. Clearly then, the sixth alley is not strictly com- 

 parable with the others, and should not be considered. It is 

 therefore set off from the rest in the accompanying tables. 



In the first alley the emotional disturbance of the animal is 

 very great. Whether he will turn to the right or to the left 

 is a matter of pure chance. Watson has shown that the learn- 

 ing of the maze is due largely to the kinaesthetic and organic 

 impulses which cannot begin to play their role very effectively 

 until some distance has been run in the maze. 6 As stated 

 above, the start in the first alley is as likely to be in the wrong 

 as in the right direction. If the start is wrong increasing dis- 

 turbance ensues, and is often carried over into alley II. 7 Aside 

 from this fact, there is the very strong tendency to back-track 

 to the point of entrance (E), which has a different stimulating 

 value from any other part of the maze. It is for these reasons 

 that the first alley as well as the sixth is judged incomparable 

 with the rest and hence is set off from them in the tables. 



This leaves for consideration four alleys, II, III, IV and V. 

 Whether the process in question is spoken of as the elimination 

 of errors, the "stamping in" of useful movements and the 

 "stamping out" of useless ones, or simply as the elimination of 

 alleys matters little; the facts remain the same. The writer has 

 chosen for convenience to speak of the elimination of super- 

 fluous movements in an alley as the elimination of the alley 

 itself, and the results are so tabulated. For example, Rat 4 

 of Group A made its last error in alley II at the 11th trial, 

 running the alley perfectly in all succeeding trials. The alley 

 is therefore spoken of as eliminated at the 12th trial. Likewise 

 III was eliminated at the 8th trial, IV at the 3rd and V at the 

 7th trial, no errors being made in those alleys after the 7th, 

 2nd, and 6th trials respectively. The first column gives the 

 laboratory number of the animal, while column 2 gives the 

 total number of trials the animal required to learn the maze. 



5 This error seldom occurs, because in passing the entrance to the food box the 

 smell and sight of the food become directive. 



6 Watson, J. B. Kinaesthetic and Organic Sensations — Their Role in the Reac- 

 tion of the White Rat to the Maze. Psychological Monographs, Series No. 33. 



7 It is not unlikely that the deviation of the results in alley II from those in III, 

 IV and V may be explained in this way. 



