11 



althoTish both Basaet and Ulrich uaed carrots and fruit occasion' 

 ally. 



The rats were handled freely from birth, and consequent- 

 ly were ^rerfectly tame and evinced no fear of the e>4.ariraenter. 

 Special care was taken to tame any rat seeming a little v.ild, 

 before beginning v\ork: with him, since it was believed that fear 

 and timidity might cause irregularities in behavior, a belief 

 which was substantiated during the course of the exi:eriment. 



It was deriired in this work to obtain not only a record 

 of time but also a distance record of the learning process, 

 since it was felt that this might throw considerably more light 

 on the factors involved in learning than had yet been obtained. 

 The raarre problem seemed to offer greater possibilities in this 

 line than either sensory problems requiring a long and 

 tedious course of ^preliminary training or problems of maniiula- 

 tion permitting of movements In two dimensions which would be 

 praotioally impossible to trace. We therefore selected as 

 our problem the learning of the circular maze. 



Heretofore, the only data possible on such a proble.-n have 

 been in terms of time and errors, the time being the only re- 



liable record since it is practically imi^ossible to evaluate 



1 ? 



and standardize errors. With regard to this Hiaa Kicks sa^ 



"The prevalent practice of omittinp- all total and partial re- 



1. Watson, J.B., Iloddy and Sooty Terrac?, Carnegie Pub. :io. 103, 

 p. 24 9, note 1. 



2. Eicks, V.C., The Relative Values of Different Curves in 

 learning. Jour. An. Behav. I, 138-156. 



