TRANSFER FACTORS IN MAZE LEARNING 



331 



maze he suggests as elements: the recession of the instinct of 

 timidity, the association between maze situation and food, and 

 practice in error elimination. These may well be given experi- 

 mental determination by laboratory applications of the " meth- 

 ods of agreement and difference." This monograph appeared 

 after the present experiments were completed. References to 

 Wiltbank's monograph will be made below. 



The attention of the writer turned to the study of the pos- 

 sibility of the experimental isolation of factors that might be 

 transferred. The material devised and used in the Oberlin labor- 

 atory seemed unusually well adapted to such an investigation: 

 being in a multiple unit system capable of indefinite rearrange- 

 ment of maze patterns. 10 



I. FIRST SERIES 



The work was undertaken by some members of the writer's 

 class in animal psychology, the students performing much of 

 the routine of the work but with the constant presence and over- 

 sight of the instructor. Nineteen rats were used as subjects, 



TABLE 1 



taken from three different litters, and so re-grouped as to have 

 some from each litter in each of the four groups to be used (see 

 table 1). The four groups were given distinct kinds of " train- 

 ing' 7 or preliminary work, and all were given the same "test" 

 problem, thus rendering possible some judgment as to the rela- 

 tive values of the different sorts of preliminary practice. 



In detail: The preliminary training for group I consisted only 

 in taking them from the nest at regular feeding time, placing them 



10 For description, see R. H. Stetson and J. F. Dashiell, A multiple unit 

 system of maze construction, Psychological Bulletin, xvi, 223-230. 



