TRMNING IN WHITE RATS UPON VARIOUS SERIES OF MAZES 57 



when one is partially learned, then the other completely 

 learned and finally the learning of the former completed. 

 The group which after learning the D maze as its first 

 was carried over to the E maze in the course of the first 

 experiment described above, having to do with the per- 

 sistence and cumulation of transfer of training, served as 

 the control-group for these mazes in this order. A special 

 group of seven rats was trained in E and then transferred 

 to D, giving a control for the learning of these mazes in 

 this order. 



The figures of the control-group are given in table 46, 

 and after them the figures of the other groups learning the 

 mazes according to the method indicated in connection 

 with each group. 



From the control-figures — those numbered 1 and 2 

 above — it will be apparent that the two mazes were mas- 

 tered with less effort when the more difficult maze, judging 

 according to the degree of transfer, which was D, was 

 learned first. But the advantage of learning the more 

 difficult maze first was counteracted if before learning it 

 four trials were made upon the easier maze, to which the 

 transfer was to be made. Moreover, when the order: 

 sixteen trials in a maze, the learning of another maze, the 

 completion of the learning of the maze in which the sixteen 

 trials were made, — when this order was followed it mattered 

 little whether the trials began in the more difficult or less 

 difficult maze. The sixteen trials when made upon the 

 more difficult maze resulted in a large saving in the easier 

 maze, but this saving was counterbalanced by the com- 

 paratively great number of trials needed upon the return 

 to the harder maze in order to carry its learning to com- 

 pletion. When the sixteen trials were made in the easier 

 maze, the beneficial effect upon the learning of the second 

 maze was far less marked, but this disadvantage was fully 

 compensated for by the less effort needed to complete 

 the easier maze. 



If the series numbered 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 is viewed as one in 

 which the order of the learning is from the D maze to the 

 E maze, except that after the first maze-learning of the 

 series the order is modified by the giving of a certain num- 



