The Mental Life of Monkeys and Apes: A Study of Ideational Behavior. Robert Mearns Yerkes
end of the group, and so on down the line. Having reached the extreme right end, the tendency was to follow the side of the reaction-chamber around to the opposite end and to enter the first box at the left end of the group, which was, of course, the right one. This method appears, with certain slight variations, in approximately ninety per cent of the trials which involved incorrect choices. Thus, in the case of trials 121 to 130, of which eight exhibit right first choices, the remaining two exhibit the method described above except that the final member at the right end of the group was in each case omitted.
[Illustration: FIGURE 18.—Error curves of learning for the solution of problem 1 (first box at left end).]
On the whole, Skirrl's behavior in connection with this problem appears to indicate a low order of intelligence. He persisted in such stupid acts as that of turning, after emergence from the right box, toward the right and passing into the blind alley I, instead of toward the left, through G and H, to D. In contrast with the other animals, he spent much time before the closed doors of the boxes, instead of going directly to the open doors, some one of which marked the box in which the reward of food could be obtained. It is, moreover, obvious that his responses, as they appear in table 1, are extremely different from those of a human being who is capable of bringing the idea of first at the left end to bear upon the problem in question.
Problem 2. Second from the Right End
Following the series of control trials of problem 1 given to Skirrl on May 6, a period of four days was allowed during which the animal was merely fed in the boxes each day. This was done in order that he should partially lose the effects of his previous training to choose the first box at the left before being presented with the second problem, the second box from the right.
On May 11 regular experimentation was begun with problem 2. Naturally the situation presented unusual difficulties to the monkey because of his previously acquired habit, and on the first day it was possible to give only five trials, in all except the first of which Skirrl had to be aided by the experimenter to find the right box. He persistently, as appears in the first line of records of table 2, entered the first box at the left. The series was continued on May 13, but with very unsatisfactory results, since he apparently had been greatly discouraged by the unusual difficulties previously met. Only four trials could be given, and in these the showing made was very poor. It is noteworthy, however, that in trials 6, 7, and 8, May 13, there was no marked tendency to choose the first box at the left. Thus quickly had the force of the previous habit been broken.
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