24 RUTLEDGE T. WILTBANK 



entering D, and that the behavior of the animals on being 

 placed within the entrance of D accounts for their frequent 

 entrances into blind alley 1. The former of these facts 

 needs no special comment, for the connection between 

 running forward through a series of runways and obtaining 

 food at the end of the journey must be implanted in the 

 animal's neural mechanism by the close of the first maze- 

 learning. Why the animals entered the blind alley so 

 frequently, however, is not to be explained solely on the 

 ground of the dispositions which they brought with them 

 to the maze, but also on the ground of their behavior 

 within the maze itself. It was the almost invariable be- 

 havior of the rats, — invariable both as respects the number 

 of rats concerned and the number of trials through which 

 it continued, — to turn immediately on being introduced 

 into the maze and sniff at the door. This brought their 

 bodies into a position in which the likelihood of their 

 entering blind alley 1 was much greater than that of 

 their entering the true pathway, as may be seen by re- 

 ferring to the diagram of the maze, Plate I, figure 4. When 

 they were in this position, it required movement through 

 only a few degrees to the right in order to bring their 

 heads into line with the blind alle^^ or even into the blind 

 alley. In any case, it was a situation similar to that which 

 in the C maze called forth the first of the motor habits 

 eventuating in the animals' obtaining food, and the animals 

 plunged into the blind alley with great speed and great 

 force. After sniffing at the door, it was necessary for them, 

 if they were to enter the true pathway, either to pass close 

 to the blind alley by turning to the right, without being 

 overcome by its solicitation; or else by turning to the 

 left pass through an arc of more than 180 degrees. It is 

 plain that, once the animals turned to the door, their 

 chance random movements would favor decidedly the 

 selection of the blind alley. 



The question remains to be dealt with, why this tendency 

 to enter the blind alley should have been so greatly exag- 

 gerated in the cases of groups 1 and 2 — so greatly, in fact, 

 as to be the cause of the negative transfer. If 52.8 per 

 cent of the errors made by group 3 were made in blind 



