SOME RESULTS OF TRAINING A GUINEA PIG 



Description of the Maze. 



The maze used in these experiments consisted of a 

 straight passage which ran for eighteen inches from the 

 entrance to a point where two other passages turned at 

 right angles from it, running to the right and to the left. 

 Three inches beyond this point the right passage turned 

 again to the right and the left passage to the left, both open- 

 ing through doorways into an area outside the maze. 



Doors were made of sheet zinc and were swung from the 

 top. The exit doors could open only outward and the entrance 

 door could open only inward. Thus the animal having entered 

 the maze could pass out through the exit doors. These 

 doors were provided with hooks by which either could be 

 locked at will. The outside measurement of the box was 

 seventeen by twenty-six inches. 



In order to pass through the maze the animal enter- 

 ing had to choose either the right or the left passage. This 

 choice was involved in most of the following experiments 

 with the maze. An albino male Guinea pig was used as the 

 subject in these tests. He was about four months old when 

 first used and about seven and a half months old when the 

 tests ended. 



Habit Formation in the Maze. 



The Guinea pig had been accustomed to come to the edge 

 of his cage, when the side of it was rapped on, in order to 

 get a bite of carrot which was held in the experimenter's 

 hand. In this first experiment the carrot was held in the 

 first passageway of the maze and knocked frequently against 

 the wooden side. The Guinea pig being outside the entrance 

 door, reacted, as he had learned to do in his next box, by 

 hunting about for the carrot in the neighborhood of the 

 source of sound. 



After the pig had learned to enter the entrance door 

 he was allowed to do so and here to eat a little of the carrot, 



[FOURTEEN 



