Citation

Ritchie BF. J. Exp. Psychol. 1948; 38(6): 659-669.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1948, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0054605

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

"Two kinds of auxiliary dispositions are… distinguished, (1) place dispositions and (2) direction dispositions, and the evidence for the existence of such dispositions is reviewed… . To determine whether such auxiliary dispositions generalize to new starting places or paths, a group of 50 rats was trained on a simple T-maze… . After this training was completed, each of the rats [was] started from a place which was on the opposite side of the choice point of the original maze, and on the same axis as the original starting path… . Fifty-seven percent of the rats exhibited an auxiliary direction disposition. That is, they chose the last path on the side facing the former food place. There was no evidence that these rats also acquired an auxiliary place disposition. Only 7.2 percent of the animals chose the path that pointed directly towards the former food place." (see 22: 194). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)