A SIMPLE MAZE 367 



2. The use of the simple maze makes it possible to train larger 

 numbers of animals and so gain a better control of individual 

 variations. 



3. In the formation of the maze-habit distributed practice is 

 more efficient than concentrated. 



4. This is due to factors which arise from the particular 

 methods of training used, peculiar to the maze problem, and not 

 to the influence of the time relations upon the process of fixation 

 of new functional nervous connections. 



5. The same is probably true of all cases where the distribution 

 of effort has been found to influence the rate of learning. There 

 is no reliable evidence for a gradual "setting" of the nervous 

 connections formed during learning. 



REFERENCES 



COLVIN, S. S.: The learning process. New York, 1911. 



LASHLEY, K. S. : The acquisition of skill in archery. Carnegie Inst. of Washing- 

 ton. Pub. no 211, 1915, 105-128. 



LASHLEY, K. S. : A causal factor in the relation of the distribution of practice to 

 the rate of learning. Journ. Animal behav., 1917a, vii, 139-142. 



LASHLEY, K. S. : The effects of strychnine and caffeine upon the rate of learning. 

 Psychobiology, 1917b, i, 141-169. 



LASHLEY, K. S. : AND FRANZ, S. I. : The effects of cerebral destruction upon habit- 

 formation and retention in the albino rat. Psychobiology, 1917, i, 

 71-139. 



LUCAS, KEITH: The conduction of the nervous impulse. London, 1917. 



STARCH, D. : Periods of work in learning. Jour. Educational Psychol., 1912, iii, 

 209-213. 



ULRICH, J. L. : Distribution of effort in learning in the white rat. Behav. Monogr. 

 1915, ii, no. 10, 1-51. 



