THE LEARNING OF A SIMPLE MAZE BY 
THE LARVA OF AMBYSTOMA TIGRINUM 
(GREEN) 
By ALBERT KUNTZ 
St. Louis University School of Medicine 
One of the methods commonly employed in the study of the 
behavior of lower vertebrates in attempts to determine whether 
they possess associative memory, or the capacity to learn by re- 
peated experience, involves setting before them simple tasks 
which they are able to accomplish without too great effort, pro- 
viding the proper stimulus, and noting the time and effort re- 
quired to accomplish the tasks in repeated trials. One of the 
most convenient devices for this purpose is a simple maze; i. e., 
a more or less tortuous path along which the animal may be in- 
duced to travel. If it has associative memory it will be able to 
reach a given objective in such a path in less time and with less 
effort after the task has been accomplished repeatedly than in 
the initial trial. It will also be able to retain the simple habit 
thus aequired. 
Studies of this character on fish carried out by Triplett 
(1901), Thorndike (1911), Goldsmith (1914), and Churchill 
(1916) indicate that these animals are capable of forming sim- 
ple habits which they retain for some time. Studies on the be- 
havior of Batrachians by Abbott (1894) led him to conclude 
that the ‘‘wits of the frog were too limited to be demonstrat- 
ed.’’ On the other hand, experimental studies on the behavior 
of frogs and toads by Knauer (1875), Jourdain (1900), and 
Yerkes (1903) indicate that these animals are capable of form- 
ing simple associations and of acquiring simple habits which 
may be retained for relatively long intervals of time. 
Although the Amphibian brain represents a higher degree of 
organization than the fish brain, the nervous mechanism of Am- 
phibia like Ambystoma, by reason of their mode of life, is less 
constantly and less intensely stimulated by the environment than 
that of the fish. Being eryptie in their habits their survival 
Contributions from the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, No. 51 
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