The Normal Sensory Control of the Perfected Double-Alternation Spatialmaze Habit of the Albino Rat

Double alternation behavior of the white rat in a spatial maze.

“…They cannot, however, at one time produce one response and at another time produce another response unless supplemented by an additional factor. 1 In the present case, as 1 It may be informally reported that Casper, after the completion of his work (1), developed the hypothesis that kinesthetic processes might be influential in running the double alternation spatial maze if the rat took consistently different numbers of steps or consistently ran at different rates in the various straight units of the maze. He studied this possibility by means of records from smoked paper laid on the floor of the maze, but the results were negative.…”

“…In contrast with this, the double alternation of correct turns in the ordinary spatial maze gives the rat no particular difficulty. The present paper reports a series of experiments on the white rat's learning behavior in a double alternation spatial maze whose orientation in space is changed and whose component units are interchanged before each trial, a method used first by Casper (1) in the Clark Laboratory. Under such conditions there are no stimuli from outside the maze or from the individual units of the pathway which can serve as differential controls for a perfected habit.…”

The determiners of behavior at a choice point.

“…Under the heading of 'appetite' we think of Young (151,152,153), Elliott (25) and Bruce (13), and for an extraordinarily good summary of all the work relative to both demands and appetites we would look to Stone's chapter in Moss's 'Comparative Psychology' (115). Under the heading of 'differentiation' we think of many individuals: Watson (141), Carr (17,18,19), Hunter (50, .51), Dennis (24), Casper (20), Lindley (68), Wolfle (147), and Honzik (46), to mention only a few. Under the heading of 'motor skill' we think of Macfarlane (73).…”

Brain mechanisms and "hypotheses."

“…The present hypothesis can adequately incorporate within its system the apparently contradictory experimental data of Lashley relative to his findings -that maze ability in the rat is a function of the mass of tissue intact, and not of the locus. All experimenters in the field would readily grant that the maze habit very probably depends on several sense modalities for its efficient going off (see recent studies of Casper, 1933;Honzik, 1934). If we grant this well-substantiated assumption it should be apparent that if the different "hypotheses" employed in running the maze are functions of different "master areas" within the brain, then the greater the lesion, the greater the probability that more of these "master areas" would be destroyed.…”