54 HELEN B. HUBBERT 



RESUME OF CONCLUSIONS 



1. Young rats learn the maze more rapidly than the old 

 ones, the rapidity with which the habit may be formed de- 

 creasing with increase in age. 



2. Absolute time, the time required for the execution of the 

 perfect run, increases with increase in age, the oldest group 

 requiring more than twice as much time as the youngest. 



3. The most rapid stage of habit formation occurs earlier 

 in the learning process of the younger animals than of the 

 older ones. 



4. In the very young rats (25 days) and the very old (300 

 days) sex differences are negligible, while among the animals of 

 medium age (65-300 days) the males learn more rapidly than 

 the females. 



5. In general the absolute time for the females is lower 

 than that for the males, suggesting greater efficiency on the 

 part of the former in the execution of the habit when it had once 

 been perfected. 



6. Practically no difference in ability to form the maze habit 

 is to be found between rats learning the problem in the day- 

 time and those learning at night. 



7. Continued practice after the problem has been learned 

 causes a break in the habit and does not result in an increase 

 of final efficiency. 



8. The rapidity with which the maze habit will be formed 

 is predictable, within certain limits, from one family group to 

 another. 



9. In the matter of elimination of errors, the outer alleys 

 are usually those in which useless movements are last to drop 

 out, but a 5-4-3-2 order does not hold, i. e., errors in 5 dropping 

 out first, those in 4 second, etc. This bears directly on the 

 question of the relation of the food to the learning process and 

 seems to negate the pleasure-pain hypothesis, but no conclusive 

 evidence has been obtained. 



10. The importance of an adequate test on retention is made 

 quite evident by these results. 



If an analogy may be drawn between the learning ability 

 of the rat and that of the human subject, it may be seen that 

 in general the old can learn a given problem as well as the young 

 although more effort is required to do so. The efficiency of 



