Abstract

The Journal of General Psychology, 1949, 41, 37-46. Department of PJychology, Emory University MAURICE CURTIS LANCHORNE A. INTRODUCTION The rotated maze as a learning device lends itself admirably to the study of many of the problems dealing with learning and retroactive inhibition. Retroactive inhibition can be demonstrated in the following steps: (a) the maze can be learned to a given criterion; (6) the same objective pattern can be learned in a different position; (c) the original position can then be re- learned to the former criterion; and (d) a comparison can be made with a control group which learned the original position and then relearned it after the same interval without the intervening of other maze activity. This gives the investigator measures of the influence of the interpolation of the learning of the new position on the retention of the formerly learned maze position. The influences of differing interpolated positions, the effect of the temporal order of interpolation, and other parameters can be measured. B. EARLIER STUDIES The reviews of Britt (1) and of Swenson (10) offer convenient sources for references dealing with problems relating to retroaction. Britt states that his purpose in writing his paper is to review