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 Rats exploration of the Right and the Left

When I was attending the university many years ago I majored in Psychology and History. A course I remembered very well was learning theory. One of the experiments I recalled involved a Y Maze and laboratory rats. The purpose of experience was to understand decisions making and learning patterns; I wanted to actualize how many attempts a rat had to make in order to learn the location of the cheese in making an informed decision. I brought to my laboratory a Y maze and a family of laboratory rats. Note: A y Maze for those that aren't familiar is a Maze configured in the shape of a Y. I placed a rat at the opening of the Y maze (see diagram below). At first, I placed the cheese on the left and then to the right side of the Maze. The rats made several tries in error by going to the right side back to intersecting fork and would smell the air and after making several additional errors finally discovered the location of the cheese on the left side. Once the location was established the little laboratory rats instinctively went straight to the location of the cheese without hesitation. Great! I thought learning had taken place.

     Reward

LeftRight

Once that the decision had been established I then changed the location of the cheese from the left side of the Maze to the right side of the Maze and repeated the experiment with the exact same results i.e. several errors and ultimately the rat learned the new location of the cheese. Again new learning took place and superseded the old learning for establishing a decision. Two thumbs up for success.

Then there was an epiphany! "A what if moment if you will"; what if I changed the location of the cheese randomly? I proposed; i.e. right, left and back again several times at random times and at different intervals.  

 Total confusion and chaos emerge; instead of making several errors smelling and the air and the established patterns as before the rats suddenly stop at the fork of the Maze, after making several attempts in frustration,  began gyrating like spinning tops and then collapsed from exhaustion a few minutes later.

Take away:

•         There is nothing like time and experience in any decisions
•                    Trial and error are important components in the decision process
•                             In any decision, know the goal and avoid being confused by the noise
•                                Changes appear unexpectedly and switch from one side to the other
•  Establish historical patterns as a guide for a decision
  • Anticipate where the reward is moving not where it's been

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