The time, the path, its length and strenuousness in maze learning

Previous findings show that rats in a maze tend to choose the shortest path to reach food. But it is not clear whether this choice is based on path length solely, or some other factors. The aim of this experiment was to investigate which factor dominates the behavior in a maze: path (longer and shorter), time (longer and shorter), or effort (more or less strenuous). The experiment involved 40 mice (4 groups), learning a maze with two paths. Each group went through only one of the situations within which we kept one factor constant on two paths while the remaining two factors were varied. Only in the fourth situation all factors were equalized. The results show that there is a statistically significant difference in the maze path preference between four situations. Preference between the paths is such that mice always choose paths requiring less effort.