EFFECT OF LENGTH OF BLIND ALLEYS ON MAZE LEARNING 33 



determine. There were, moreover, 14% more returns from the 

 entrances in the former than in the latter case. It is possible 

 that the rats entering 8 at full length, which runs along side 

 the food box, had time and opportunity to get sufficient odor 

 from the food to influence them against returning. Accidental 

 factors may have been the cause in part; half of the entrances 

 were made in the first two trials, and the total numbers are 

 too small to indicate with much probability the actual trends. 



On the whole there can be no question that, other things 

 equal, entrances to short cul de sacs are more easily eliminated 

 than entrances to long ones. 



The results from both types of mazes used in this experiment 

 (see tables I and II) show that on the whole cul de sacs first 

 encountered in the maze were entered more frequently, and 

 that the impulses to enter them were overcome with more 

 difficulty, than were those occurring further along the true 

 path, or nearer the food. In this respect our results are in 

 agreement with those of Miss Vincent 16 and contrary to those 

 of Miss Hubbert. 17 While in the present experiment, 'not 

 intended especially to test this point, the bearing of the results 

 is necessarily complicated by an inequality of the lengths of 

 the various blind alleys, there is no evidence to show that results 

 would have been different with cul de sacs of equal lengths and 

 of equal direction difficulties. In the B-mazes, for example, 

 '6 and 7 were much less troublesome than 3 and 4, in many 

 respects similarly located with respect to the correct path, and 

 all of equal length. By all means the most difficult cul de sac 

 to avoid entering was 1, even when shortened to 8.5 inches. 

 The total entrances to 6 and 7 long are 101, against 142 to 

 3 and 4 long; to 6 and 7 shortened 83, against 130 to 3 and 4 

 shortened. The total number of entrances to 1 short are 275> 

 whereas the totals to 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 full length amount only to 

 192. It seemed that the rats got rather firmly registered in 

 their proprio-ceptive system of controls the tendency to make 

 two successive turns of 90 degrees each to the right, beginning 



16 Vincent, Stella B. The White Rat and the Maze Problem— IV. The Number 

 and Distribution of Errors: a Comparative Study. Jour. Animal Behav., 1915, 

 5, 367-374. " The final members of the cul de sacs were entered less frequently 

 and eliminated first." P. 374. 



17 Hubbert, Helen B. Elimination of Errors in the Maze. Jour. Animal Behav., 

 1915, 5, 66-72. 



