THE RELATIVE VALUES OF THE DIFFERENT 

 CURVES OF LEARNING 



VINNIE C. HICKS 

 From the Psychological Laboratory of the University of Chicago 



FIVE FIGURES 



There are three possible quantitative criteria which can be used 

 in representing the learning process of an animal in the maze, 

 viz., the number of errors, the time of the run, and the total 

 distance traversed. Time and error data have been used, but a 

 distance curve has never been published. It is our purpose to 

 discuss the relative values and limitations of these three criteria 

 as representative of the learning process in the light of an ex- 

 perimental study in which the three sets of data are taken for 

 the same group of animals. 



There has been a divergence both of opinion and practice in 

 regard to time and error criteria. Some experimenters publish 

 only error results, while others rely upon time alone. Two antag- 

 onistic opinions have been expressed by Watson and Yerkes. 

 Watson ' takes a very decided stand in favor of time as a criterion, 

 as is evident in the following passage: "There is one serious 

 defect in the Small maze. We find it impossible to take an 

 accurate account of the errors in it. As a matter of fact, we have 

 recorded the errors made by our rats in the way suggested by 

 Small, Kinnaman and Porter. They fill one or tw^o notebooks, 

 but we feel sure that they are not worth the time spent in re- 

 cording them — certainly are not valuable enough nor accurate 

 enough to publish. Since this position makes the absolute time 

 record the only criterion of the learning process, we have used 

 extra precautions to make it show what it is meant to show, 

 viz., the relative rapidity with which normal and defective 

 rats form the maze association. We have both time and error 

 records before us, and we unhesitatingly say, that the time 

 record carefully controlled, is the only safe guide to estimating 

 the learning process of a maze constructed along the lines of the 

 present one." 



* Watson, J. B., Kinaesthetic and organic sensations: their role in the reactions 

 of the white rat to the maze. Psychological Remew, Mon. Sup., 1907, vol. 8, No. 2, 

 pp. 13-14. 



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