A SIMPLE MAZE 365 



In the study cited it was not possible to determine the extent 

 to which this one factor was responsible for the effects of the dis- 

 tribution of practice. The present study makes it possible to 

 estimate the importance of conflicting habits under different 

 distributions of practice a little more accurately, although the 

 conflicting reactions are of a somewhat different character from 

 those dealt with in the first study. The retardation in concen- 

 trated practice in group D amounted to 338 per cent, that in 

 group B to only 53 per cent of the effort required for learning in 

 distributed practice. The difference, 285 per cent, is clearly due 

 to conflicting habits which affect the efficiency of performance 

 and not the formation of associations. The animals of group B 

 gave some evidence of avoiding reactions in the neighborhood of 

 the food dish, and since a slight exaggeration of this reaction was 

 able to increase the retarding effects of concentrated practice to 

 145 per cent in group A, we are justified in assuming that a large 

 part of the 53 per cent retardation found in group B is due to the 

 same factors which were effective in groups A and D. 



When allowance is made for the influence of stereotyped 

 reactions upon random activity and for the establishment of 

 habits which actively interfere with efficient performance, there 

 may yet remain a slight reduction in efficiency in concentrated 

 practice which is due to the influence of the distribution of effort 

 upon the process of fixation of new functional nervous connec- 

 tions. Such a remainder can be demonstrated only by a proc- 

 ess of elimination of agents which modify behavior in problem- 

 solving or efficiency of performance and this can be done only by 

 a more complete control of experimental methods than has yet 

 been undertaken. In the existing evidence there is no reason for 

 the belief that any such remainder will be found, at least in 

 maze-learning. The agents acting upon other processes than 

 those of fixation are adequate 'to account for all the effects of 

 concentrated practice revealed by experiments and there is no 

 foundation for the assumption that there is any "gradual process 

 of fixation" which is influenced by the distribution of practice. 

 Whether or not the concept is more applicable to other forms of 

 learning, such as those involving implicit activity, is a matter for 



