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Runway. A runway is a maze without blind alleys. Like the maze, a runway consists of a start box alleyway and goal box segments. A trial begins by placing the animal in the start box. The door is opened, and the animal is allowed to run down the alley into the goal box. Once in the goal box, the animal is returned to the start box for a new trial. Runway performance can be measured in several ways, such as the time to leave the start box (starting time), and the time to traverse the alley (running time). The runway is most commonly used to investigate parameters of reinforcement such as frequency, probability, amount, and quality. The runway shown was developed to study learning in the cockroach. In this example, the goal box is to the right of the alley to prevent the animal from seeing the reward