THE NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF TRIALS IN 

 ARMING IN THE WHITE RAT. 



The present study on the influence of the number 

 and distribution of trials on learning in the white rat 

 gre 7 out of work already done along similar lines on 

 human beings and out of the work on learning in animals 

 along other lines. Ebbinghaus (1) in his pioneer work 

 on nonsense syllables found that it was better to dis- 

 tribute the periods of learning over several days than 

 to attempt all in one day. There was a saving of time 

 and retention was better. The influence of the length 

 and number of daily periods of learning has recently 

 been further investigated by Pyle (2). He has shown 

 that daily periods of half-hour practice in learning 

 certain characters are, for most individuals, more pro- 

 fitable than longer periods. Again a second daily 

 practice peri-od "is not quite as beneficial as the first 



