puzzle box

American

noun

Psychology.

an enclosure, used in experiments in animal learning, from which an animal must escape or in which it must manipulate various devices.

First recorded in 1865–70

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Squirrels should be smart enough to take the easy pickings over the puzzle box.

From Slate

“Alice in Borderland” presents a more straightforward premise in the form of a puzzle box narrative.

From Salon

Danielle Trussoni’s “The Puzzle Box” received the award for mystery/thriller.

From Los Angeles Times

Using an automated puzzle box system they developed, the team designed an experiment to test this immigration hypothesis.

From Science Daily

Each group was provided a tutor which was trained to access food from a puzzle box by either pushing the door left or right.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023