In a famous & widely taught experiment Tolman et al. (1946) https://content.apa.org/record/1993-12366-001 reported that rats took the shortest path to a reward when their original route was blocked. Less known is that Gentry, Brown & Kaplan (1948) + many others, failed to replicate the effect...

Training: rats take a long path to a reward box (g in Fig. 1). Testing: this is replaced with others at many angles. Tolman's rats took the one going to where the food was. A light above the food is often cited as a flaw, but Gentry et al. (1948) showed that it has little effect.