Effects of Differences in Numbers of Trials Per Day on Maze Learning

Abstract

2 experiments were conducted employing tasks of differing difficulty. The Ss of each experiment were divided into 5 sub-groups, each group containing 3 animals, a total of 30 rats being used for the experiments. Experiment I involved a position task, employing a discrimination box in which the Ss were always to go into the left alley to be rewarded. Experiment II entailed a discrimination task, also employing a discrimination box in which the Ss were always to go into the white alley of the black and white pair. In both experiments the 5 sub-groups ran 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 trials per day. An analysis of variance of the data showed no significant differences in the performance of one group in either experiment. This suggests that a differing distribution of the same total number of trials over differing numbers of days will not significantly affect the number of trials needed to learn a task. It is also suggested that more research is needed to clarify several questions arising from the experimentation.