Inheritance of discrimination learning ability and retention in BA and DBA mice

Male house mice from two inbred strains, DBA/2 and BA, and their F1 and F2 crosses and backcrosses, B1 and B2, were tested for black-white discrimination learning and 24-hr response retention in a water maze. The BA strain exhibited an inferior learning performance. Nonparametric and biometrical genetic analyses provided only weak evidence of unifactorial inheritance of acquisitions, but somewhat stronger evidence in the case of retention.