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This article was downloaded by: [Tufts University]On: 08 October 2014, At: 09:15Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
The Journal of GeneticPsychology: Research andTheory on Human DevelopmentPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vgnt20
The Effects of VisualOrientation on the MazeLearning Ability of the WhiteRatWillard E. Caldwell a & William Lewis MacCracken aa Department of Psychology , The GeorgeWashington University , Washington 6 , D. C. , USAPublished online: 04 Sep 2012.
To cite this article: Willard E. Caldwell & William Lewis MacCracken (1955) TheEffects of Visual Orientation on the Maze Learning Ability of the White Rat, TheJournal of Genetic Psychology: Research and Theory on Human Development, 86:1,69-77, DOI: 10.1080/00221325.1955.10532897
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.1955.10532897
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T h e Journal o f Genetic Psychology, 1955, 88, 69-77.
THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL ORIENTATION ON THE MAZE LEARNING ABILITY OF THE W H I T E RAT*'
Department o f Psychology, T h e George Washington University
WILLARD E. CALDWELL AND WILLIAM LEWIS MACCRACKEN
A. INTRODUCTION One of the central problems in maze learning has been the controversy
between S-R, or associationist theories which Hull had proposed, and cog- nitive theories such as held by Tolman (3). Hull stressed the connections between stimuli and responses in maze learning and Tolman has stressed the fact that the learning process was not a mere connection of stimuli and responses, but was a cognitive mapping; learning along with many other factors was a determiner of performance.
I t is the purpose of the present study to examine and illustrate the more cognitive aspects of maze learning by means of visually presenting a maze pattern to rats prior to their actually running the maze.a
B. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM The operational objective of this study can be stated as: What is the effect
of pushing a group of rats in a plastic box through a maze on their later performance in learning the maze as compared with the performance of a control group who had not had the experience of previous visual orientation.
C. APPARATUS
b
The experimental animals in this experiment were pushed through the maze in a plastic box (see F i a r e 1). It was designed so that when the animal was in the box there .was a minimum of restriction and restraint. This was accomplished as follows: the normal walking position of the rat was decided to be the best position for the rat while it was in the plastic box, the front of the box was designed in two parts to resemble a restrain-
*Received in the Editorial Office on November 30, 1952. 1The writera wish tb expreas their appreciation to Mr. John G. Tiedemann for
editorial assiatsnce in the preparation of this manuscript. The writers also wish to thank Mrs. Helen S. Stone for editorial criticism and Miss Mary Wall for sugges- tions and work on the atatistical calculation of the data.
'JThe results of this experiment were previously summarized in a theoretical ar- ticle by Caldwell (1).
69
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70 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY
ing stock, nitches were cut into the upper sliding panel so that it could be adjusted to the neck size of the rat, i t was proportioned so that the smallest rat could not withdraw his head, the length and width of the box were de- termined by the largest rat, the rear of the box was a simple sliding panel of plastic one-eighth inch in thickness, holes one-eighth inch in diameter were drilled through the top of the box in order to give air, free passage into the box, the rats were confined in the box which was pushed through the maze by hand.
FIGURE 1 ILLUSTRATING A RAT IN THE PLASTIC Box
FIGURE 2 ILLUSTRATING MAZE
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W. B. CALDWBLL AND W. L. MAC CRACKEN 71
T h e maze (see Figure 2) was designed so that all blind alleys were com- pletely visible to the experimental rats in the box as the rats passed by the alleys in direct route through the maze. It is necessary in this kind of a problem that the mazes have the blind alleys designed in this manner, for if the rat on his experimental free run should enter into a blind alley with which it had no previous visual contact his orientation could well be al- tered.
The sides of the alleys in the maze were 12 inches high, so that the animals could not get out of the maze. This was done in order to elimi- nate the necessity of a top. The rats could not be moved through the maze in the box by the E if a top was required. The floor and sides of the alleys were painted with flat black, but the top of the alley walls were left un- painted in order to give a contrast to the black, thus permitting the passages to stand out more clearly for the convenience of observation.
D. PROCEDURE Part I of the procedure consisted of a pilot experiment where a small num-
ber of albino mice and rats were used. Many of the technicalities were worked out and the general procedure of the experiment was decided upon. It was de- cided, however, to use rats instead of mice because it was found that they were more adaptable to the plastic box. The procedure which is to be de- scribed below applies to Part I1 and Part I11 of the experiment. Part 11 may be considered the experiment proper and Part I11 as a repetition of Part 11. In Part I1 two groups of rats were used, an experimental and a control. Nine animals were used in the experimental group and nine in the control group. In Part I11 of the experiment there were eight animals in the experimental group and seven in the control. Part 111 was a repeti- tion of the experiment with younger animals. Because of the complexity of this experiment and the fact that it was processed twice, eight different experimenters were utilized. This served to minimize personal idiosyncracies of the E’s. For the free running of the maze in both parts of the experi- ment the eight experimenters were used to check upon each other’s results for time and errors.
In both Parts I1 and 111 the experimental groups were first pushed through the maze for 15 trials and then fed at the end of each trial. It was clear from the beginning that the time of passing each rat through the maze would differ to some degree as the manipulation of the box was done by hand.
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72 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY
The procedure required that the same experimenter pull the experimental rats through the visual orientation run, and that it be done in one minute allowing 10 seconds for a 45 degree turn. General reactions were recorded on the free run trials for both the experimental and the control groups. Forward, backward, retrace errors, time in seconds, and behavioral. reactions were recorded.
All rats in this experiment were deprived of food for 21 hours prior to being placed in the maze. A small jar of dry food was placed in the goal box. At the completion of each trial each rat was permitted to feed for one minute before being returned to its cage. After it was returned to the cage the food was left for one-half hour. Some of the animals did not always go to the food. When this condition occurred, a strip of wood was placed in the goal entrance, to prevent the rat from retracing the maze, the rat remaining until it ate. Each rat made 15 free run trials.
Attempts were made to hold the lighting of the maze as constant as pos- sible. The maze was situated in a dark room illuminated by t w o overhead lights. The lighting of the maze was not uniform as there were some shad- ows, but they remained constant because the maze was secured to the floor in the best available position.
E. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The data for errors and time (see Tables 1 and 2, and Figures 3 and 4)
reveal a rather striking trend in favor of the hypothesis. The t scores in Part I11 are much larger than in Part I1 (compare Tables 1 and 2). I t seems logical to expect experimenters would profit from the first experiment and perform subsequent repetitions more efficiently.
I t is also interesting to note that the t scores in Part I1 gradually get smaller as the fifteenth trial is approached. This would be expected as the control group’s performance was following a general learning curve.
F. THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
The results of this experiment seem to indicate that previous visual orien- tation of a maze transfers to the actual motor learning of the maze. These results may contribute further evidence against the usual stimulus and re- sponse interpretation of maze learning. The results suggest that maze learn- ing may be more fruitfully interpreted in terms of field theory. This ex- perimental design also provides new hypotheses for experimentation in
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W. E. CALDWELL AND W. L. MAC CRACKEN 75
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which many phases of the maze learning process may be experimentally varied.
T h e following are some variations that might be introduced into that part of the experiment where the animals are pushed through in a plastic box :
1. T h e food reward could be eliminated after they were pushed through.
2. T h e total number of times they were pushed through without food could be varied.
3. T h e total number of times they were pushed through with food could be varied. 4. Different groups could be pushed through with different degrees of
hunger.8
YMr. Edward A. Engel has carried out some preliminary work on this problem.
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76 JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY
2 70
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CONTROL GROUPS OF PARTS I AND I1
5. 6.
Other motivation could be introduced, such as thirst. The experimental animals could be placed in the plastic box where
they would remain without being pushed through the maze to isolate the amount of adaptation to the plastic box.
The visual cues in the maze could be heightened, such as the introduc- tion of white lines on the sides of the correct pathway.
T h e maze itself could be increased in complexity.
G. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
7.
8.
In this experiment, albino rats were visually oriented to a maze by being pushed through it in a plastic box prior to the free running of the maze. Their performance was compared to a control group which was not ex- posed to the visual orientation.
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W. E. CALDWELL A N D W. L. MACCRACKEN 77
The following conclusion may be drawn from this experiment. Visual orientation of a group of experimental rats in a maze transfers in such a fashion that the free running of the maze shows a significant difference be- tween the experimental group and the control group in terms of time and errors.
REFERENCES 1. CALDWELL, W. E. The theory of adaptive differentiation. J . of Prychof., 1951,
2. HULL, C. L. Principles of Behavior. New York: Appleton-Century, 1943. 3. TOLMAN, E. C. Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men. New York: Apple-
ton-Century, 1932.
Department of Psychology T h e George Washington University Washington 6 , D. C.
SI, 105-119.
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