DISTRIBUTION OF EFFORT IN LEARNING IN WHITE RAT 41 



A 



CURVE X 



MAZE 



— ONE TRIAL 



ONE TRIAL WHEN LEARNED 



WITH OTHER PROULEMS 



SLTVIMARY OF EXPERIMENTS ON LEARNING 



The results obtained from all the experiments of this study 

 point to the conclusion that a trial given every third day is the 

 most economical as regards the number of trials. In other 

 words, when learning is distributed over several days, and not 

 accumulated in one day, the total time of learning is the shortest, 

 and less effort is demanded of the organism. Furthermore, one 

 trial given daily, though not so profitable in learning as a trial 

 given at slightly longer intervals, remains more economical than 

 when several trials are given concurrently . On the other hand, 

 when several trials are given, fewer days are necessary to learn 

 the problems, which makes this method the most economical 

 when considering the number of days. Although there is a 

 saving in the number of days with more trials, learning is in- 

 creasingly difficult, and hence greater effort on the part of the 

 organism is demanded. As has been pointed out, this is clearly 

 shown by the complexity of the curves. The following table 

 will show these facts more concretely. 



