2 STELLA B. VINCENT 



study of the positive aspects of the problems offered by the 

 behavior of the rat in forming the maze association." 3 



It was this positive aspect of the situation which formed the 

 basis for this study. Our contention was that other senses 

 might enter into the learning of such a problem and modify it. 

 We believed that the true path and the false in the maze might 

 be made to differ so in brightness, in olfactory qualities, in 

 tactual values, etc., as to affect the establishment of the habit. 

 Our object was to find out if the learning process was thus 

 affected and in what particular ways. The first experiments 

 were concerned with an attempt to introduce sight as a control 

 in the formation of this habit. The maze as ordinarily con- 

 structed and as used by Professor Watson is all of wood and of 

 one color and is not favorable for the use of vision. The sides 

 of the runways are high enough to prevent any visual help from 

 outside unless from above. It has been shown many times that 

 human subjects under such conditions find it difficult to obtain 

 or to use visual clues. Ours was not the first attempt to intro- 

 duce visual control in the maze. Others had tried the same 

 thing in different ways but the stimuli which they used were 

 ineffective and the investigators did not carry their experiments 

 far enough to make any final statements. Although so much 

 has been done with rats the proof of their ability to use vision 

 in any exact way was not very conclusive. 



PREVIOUS WORK 



The previous lines of experimental evidence as to the effective- 

 ness of vision are several: first, the comparison of the time of 

 learning and speed in running of normal rats trained and tested 

 in the dark and light respectively; second, a comparison in the 

 same respects of normal and blind animals. 



Professor Watson based his conclusions, as to the uselessness 

 of vision in the maze, upon the fact that normal rats trained in 

 the light could run the maze as quickly in the dark ; that normal 

 rats could learn the maze in the dark and acquire as rapid speed 

 as in the light ; and that blind rats could learn the maze and run 

 it with a speed equal to that of their normal companions. It 

 has been shown by others that it is scarcely fair, in such a situ- 

 ation, to make speed the sole criterion of the learning process. 



3 Ibid, p. 96. 



