Stereotypy and Variability of Behavior in a Complex Learning Situation

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Abstract
11 male albino rats were tested daily for 100 days in a three-choice multiple-path problem in which the order of path elimination was not controlled in any way by E. The criterion of learning was choosing three successively different paths on each of four consecutive days. All Ss solved the free-choice multiple-path problem by attaining the learning criterion in from 6 to 36 days (trials), the mean being 19.4. Correct choices were made more rapidly than incorrect choices. Both correct and incorrect choices were made more rapidly after the learning criterion was attained than before. Stereotyped behavior in the sense that the animal rigidly repeated the same sequence of paths on successive trials did not develop. Rather, variation in the pattern of response on successive trials was characteristic of Ss, while they maintained high accuracy in performance. Further, Ss exhibited strong preferences for sequences of paths which were not rigidly contiguous (i.e., 1-2-3 or 3-2-1 order); the tendency was to select pathways which diverged from each other rather than to select on consecutive runs successive adjacent pathways. Two-path alternation is a specific instance of this general principle.

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