The purpose of this study was to compare the learning speed of new mazes in rats with and without prior Maze learning experience. In the present study, 14 female rats were randomly assigned in two groups, experimental and control (each group consisting of 7 rats). Then, 12 different Mazes were designed and built (although different in shape, they were equal with respect to the level of complexity). The experiment was conducted in two phases. In the first phase; the experimental group started learning Mazes number 1 to 8, while the control group did not experience these 8 Mazes. In the second phase, both experimental and control groups started gaining experience in Mazes number 9 to 12. The results showed that in learning Mazes 9 to 12, the average time spent and the number of trials was significantly lower in the experimental group than control group. This finding indicates that rats with prior learning experiences learn faster than the rats without prior learning experiences. Moreover, the results showed that rats with prior learning experiences tend to learn with less learning trials than rats without learning experience. Generally, the results revealed that prior learning experiences with a situation or stimulus could positively affect later learning. Therefore, prior experiences have a significant role in the learning of new situations, despite of the differences between two.
