360 K. S. LASHLEY 



of learning. The variations in behavior relate chiefly to two 

 instinctive modes of response to the maze problem. 



1. When given food in a somewhat unfamiliar environment the 

 rat will almost invariably explore the neighborhood of the food be- 

 fore eating. In the circular maze the exploration usually includes 

 the food compartment and the alley surrounding it. If the animal 

 is not restrained after reaching the food it is almost certain to go 

 through this exploration on the first trial of each day's practice. 

 Once the exploration is completed the animal will go directly to 

 the food in the succeeding trials. The same tendency appears 

 in the simple maze with an extension of the area explored to 

 include almost the entire maze. This is shown by the following 

 analysis of the path followed by the animals during their first and 

 second trials in the simple maze. 



The data are taken from 52 animals with which training was 

 begun in the simple maze. Three of these were discarded be- 

 cause of illness; the remaining 49 are those described above. 

 Of the 52, 25 avoided the cul de sac on the first trial. This is one 

 less than the expectation from chance, since only two alternative 

 paths were offered. Of these 25, chance should have led one half 

 to enter the cul de sac and one half to avoid it on the second trial 

 and, if the principle of recency were an important factor in learn- 

 ing, more than half should have gone directly to the food. In- 

 stead of this, however, 17 of the animals entered the cul de sac 

 on the second trial and only eight went directly to the food. 

 This result seems to indicate an instinctive tendency to varied 

 activity, or to a thorough exploration of the environment. 



The tendency to explore the maze becomes much more pro- 

 nounced if the animals are frightened at any time during training 

 and this leads to additional errors and an apparently increased 

 learning time. 



2. The second factor of importance in prolonging the learning 

 process in concentrated practice is emotional disturbance in the 

 food compartment. Unless the animals have been handled a 

 great deal they will give avoiding reactions when the experi- 

 menter attempts to pick them up and readily learn to avoid 

 places where they have been caught. The following behavior is 



