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Maze
Experiment
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Introduction
Method
Analysis |
Introduction
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Trial and error learning in
humans can be studied by giving
students a task that is analogous to that faced by white rats in mazes.
Historically, this has been done in psychology classes using finger mazes that
students learn to negotiate while blindfolded. This maze learning task
is a computer-based analog to these traditional maze learning tasks.
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Method
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A maze, consisting of 16
chambers, a start box, and a finish box, is utilized for this experiment. An
overhead view of the maze is given in Figure 1. The task for participants is
to navigate their way through the maze. To do so, they are shown a straight
ahead view from their current position in the maze. The view shows the open
paths that can be chosen. Directional arrows are provided for choosing a
path. For example, Figure 2 shows the view from the start box. Note that
there are just two directional options active from the start box. One can go
straight ahead or to the right. On subsequent choices, only viable options
are active. That is, if there is no open path to the right, the right choice
is deactivated. When participants reach a dead end, the only active choice
will be a backward movement.
There are two dependent measures for this experiment. First,
participants are timed from when they make a choice that results in their
leaving the start box until they have successfully entered the finish box. If
the particpants return to the start box before entering the finish box, the
timing is not restarted. Second, the number of errors are counted during each
trial. Each time participants make an incorrect movement that results in
their deviating from the correct path it counts as one error. Each subsequent
movement along that incorrect path is not counted as an additional error.
The experiment requires that
participants complete the maze 15 times. Data are aggregated in blocks of
three trials for the analysis.
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Analysis |
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Data
Format for Downloadable csv file |
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The data obtained via the
Download data link on the PsychExperiments homepage are comma delimited.
The first entry (up to the first comma) is the affiliation of the research
participant. Typically this is the class to which the participant
belongs. Non-affiliated participants use the default entry of Interested
Person. Next is the randomly assigned ID code for the research participant. The
third and fourth entries are the data and time (24-hour format) on the server
when the data were received. Next is a text entry for gender. F is for
female and M for male. After gender comes the raw data for the experiment.
The data consist of 15 trials. The first data entry for
each trial is a trial number (1-15). This is followed by
a block number in Roman numeral format. In this dataset,
a data block consists of three trials, so Trials 1-3 are
followed by Roman numeral I, Trials 4-6 by Roman numeral II,
and so forth. Following the block designation come the
two dependent variables --time and errors. Time is the
seconds required to execute the maze successfully on that
trial. Errors are the number of incorrect choices made in the
maze on that trial. An error is defined as choice of a
bad branch in the maze. Retracing steps to get back onto the
correct branch do not contribute to errors. The table below
gives the data format (excluding user information) The text
line below that shows a complete data set for one research
participant.
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| Trial
Number |
Block
number |
Total
Time |
Number
of
errors |
Trial
Number |
Block
number |
etc. |
| 1, |
I, |
15.287, |
5, |
2, |
I, |
etc. |
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| City College of New
York--Zicks Intro
Psych,HWN929,3/24/2002,19:15,F,1,I,15.287,5,2,I,9.393,4,3,I,8.033,4,4,II,9.242,1,5,.
. . 14,V,5.867,0,15,V,7.127,0,
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