EFFECT OF LENGTH OF BLIND ALLEYS ON MAZE LEARNING 47 



simultaneous operation to some extent of the various experi- 

 ences that a rat has in finding the food box in the maze. In 

 many types of learning we have been much in the dark as to 

 how later effects of the .successful results could work back and 

 stamp in these successful acts to the exclusion of the various 

 unsuccessful ones. By the conception of the overlapping of 

 effects of successive nerve functionings may we not be getting 

 a start in the right direction? 



DISCUSSION 



Peckstein2 5 has recently tried to explain the transfer effects 



found in his experiments on the basis of factors which the writer 



finds extremely vague, subjective, and otherwise technically 



objectionable. The general factors of his explanation are: 



(1) " General maze habits " — reduction of tendency to return, 

 knowledge of the nature of errors, improved sense of direction; 



(2) " consciousness of power;" and (3) " proper emotional atti- 

 tude." Specific factors are such as common specific identities, 

 or near-identities, in the different mazes. We are told that 

 return is due to the general " dominance of the famihar." " The 

 return pathway is known to be safe. The rats seem natively 

 inclined to return to the closed entrance." This return ten- 

 dency — due to knowledge or instinct? — is actually inhibited by 

 any maze for any other. The knowledge of the nature of errors 

 is a " concept," we are told, developed in the earlier sections of 

 the total maze. A cut de sac " ceases to be a detail that must 

 be cautiously explored," and " comes to mean a detail that 

 must be left as soon as possible." At first — now we are at the 

 " sense of direction " factor — some learners " have almost a 

 ' going ahead ' instinct," while others have a greater tendency 

 to return. This latter tendency is gradually overcome. This 

 seems, then, only to be another name for the factor mentioned 

 under " returns." " In subsequent mazes, the truly sophisti- 

 cated learner will enter the cul de sac, but will proceed along 

 the forward pathway when he returns to the true course." 



The " consciousness of power " in the rats seems to manifest 

 itself, after all, in some objective behavior change, such as 

 increased activity. " In subsequent mazes, however, the con- 

 sciousness of power is clearly seen (!). No 'warming-up' period 



-5 Op. cil., pp. 50-54. 

 4 



