“An Unexpected Cue in Maze Learning”, 1929 (; backlinks):
[more fully described in 1936] In connection with an extensive study of the factors involved in learning various maze patterns, it became evident that the animals (rats) were using some cue which had not been brought under control.
The particular maze pattern concerned in the experiment here reported consisted of a number of like or standard units followed by an exceptional unit in which the reaction necessary to avoid the blind was precisely opposite to that necessary in the standard units. The rats learned the maze easily. Then when they were inserted at various points in the standard unit series they were able, after a brief period of exploration, to orient themselves accurately and locate the exceptional unit with almost no errors. This demonstrates that the standard units were not alike to them, that they obtained some differential cue either from within or without the maze.
…The maze platform is 2-inch thick and is covered with a sort of asphaltic linoleum 3⁄16-inch thick and cut into 12-inch squares. Interchange of these flooring sections caused serious disorientation of the animal.
When such floor coverings were removed from a portion of the maze and the platform covered with 14-inch hair felt, then a soft rubberized sheeting, and over all a good quality of black percale fabric, the rats behaved as though in an entirely strange situation. On this flooring they were able to learn only one (or at the most, two) standard units followed by the exceptional unit, and were unable to regain orientation if the routine were departed from. The flooring furnishes a very important cue which is, in all probability, of auditory character.
This fact has necessitated repetition of a number of maze patterns with this factor under control. We shall also apply the suggested technique to the general problem of audition in rats.
View PDF: