THE WHITE RAT AND THE MAZE PROBLEM 151 



because the errors were so few, the slowness in these places 

 placed the animals under only a slight disadvantage. The 

 running was much more rapid than that reported in Experiment 

 1. The figures in Table 1, giving the time per trial, do not show 

 this since the data for the total distance is lacking. In the first 

 trial in Experiment 1, there was an average of 4.5 errors and 1 

 return. The animals did not go to the end of each cul de sac 

 and the returns were only partial. In this experiment, with 

 trail in cul de sacs in the first trial, there was an average of 9.6 

 errors and 5 returns per animal. The larger proportion of these 

 returns were home returns and the cul de sacs were explored to 

 their farthest limits. According to these figures the time should 

 have been three times as long in the latter case had the speed 

 been comparable, instead of which it is practically the same 

 (See Table 1). From this we should conclude that the speed 

 was three times as great in the first trial in Experiment II as it 

 was in the same trial in Experiment 1 where the trail was in the 

 true path. There was a variability of speed in the middle part 

 of the experiment which clearly depends upon the increase in 

 errors. (See the curves Fig. 2). The average speed of the first 

 trial without error may be taken as a point of comparison as we 

 do not possess the figures for the total distance. The normal 

 maze gives us an average of 30 sec. for this trial, the maze with 

 the trail in the true path 160 sec, and this one 28 sec. At this 

 point, then, in this experiment, we have a speed which is quite 

 as fast as that in the normal maze. The final speed, however, 

 within the limits of the experiment, was less — .47 min. (See 

 Table 2 ) . Whether longer experimentation would have developed 

 a speed equal to that in the normal maze, or whether the condi- 

 tions would always have mediated against it is a question for 

 discussion. 



EXPERIMENT III. TRANSFER OF TRAINING 



This experiment was the crucial one. The conduct of the rats 

 had been affected by the olfactory trail in the maze, the learning 

 had been aided, but had the animals really gained anything 

 which they could carry over to another problem ? Was an 

 olfactory control so well established that it could be utilized in 

 another situation ? It was determined to take the animals, at 

 the conclusion of Experiment 1 on the maze, over to a problem 



