Okay, just to update everybody on this...

We had to abandon the project mid-way. It was going okay for the first experiment - putting the snake on a T-maze with the left T having the opening. Once the snake found the opening, he went for it without fail - zero error!

Unfortunately, by the 6th trial, the stress factor just got to the snake and when my son tried to pick her up to put her in for the 7th trial, he got bit. It didn't draw blood - my son has gotten to be an expert bite-avoider, but I told him to abandon the experiment at that point.

We didn't really prove much - at least we had indications that the snake has the capacity for short-term memory, we just haven't been able to prove it scientifically.

So, we went with his back-up plan - testing for the effect of center of mass on a pinewood derby race car.