 |
Numbers 10 and 11 exhibited no preference for either of these colors in the series of 20 tests which preceded the training tests, and neither of them gave evidence of ability to discriminate as the result of ten series of training tests. In this case, again, the behavior of the animals was as strongly against the inference that they can tell green from blue as are the records of choices which appear in the table. Granted, that they are unable to discriminate green from blue when these colors are of about the same brightness for the human eye, what results when they differ markedly in brightness? Table 23 furnishes a definite answer to this question. Numbers 5 and 12 were given eight series of green-blue tests with each light at 18 candle meters. Little, if any, evidence of discrimination appeared. Then, on the supposition that the difference was not great enough for easy discrimination, the blue light was reduced almost to 0, the green being left at 18. The tests (series 9) immediately indicated discrimination. For series 10 the green was made 64 candle meters, the blue 18, and again there was discrimination. These results were so conclusively indicative of the lack of color vision and the presence of brightness vision, that there appeared to be no need of continuing the experiment further.
Accepting provisionally the conclusion that the dancers cannot tell green from blue except by brightness differences, we may proceed to inquire whether they can discriminate other colors. Are green and red distinguishable?
Green-red discrimination now was tested by a method which it was hoped might from the first prevent dependence upon brightness. The light in the light-box on the left was so placed that it had a value of 18 candle meters, that in the light-box on the right so that it had a value of 1800 candle meters. Neither light was moved during the first four series of the green-red tests which were given to Nos. 151 and 152.
TABLE 23
GREEN-BLUE TESTS
Brightnesses Different for Human Eye
Green 18 candle meters Blue 18 candle meters
No. 5 No. 12 DATE SERIES 1906 RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (GREEN) (BLUE) (GREEN) (BLUE)
1 April 10 6 4 5 5 2 11 5 5 7 3 3 12 6 4 7 3 4 13 4 6 7 3 5 14 7 3 5 5 6 15 4 6 6 4 7 16 6 4 8 2 8 17 5 5 4 6
As it was now evident that the intensity difference was not sufficient to render discrimination easy, the blue was reduced to 0 and the green left at 18.
9 17 7 3 8 2
Now the brightnesses were made, green 64, blue 18, just the reverse of those of series of Table 22.
10 17 8 2 8 2
Each of these series consisted of 20 tests instead of 10. As a result of the arrangement of the lights just mentioned, the green appeared to me very much brighter than the red when it was on the right and very much darker when it was on the left. If this were true for the mouse also, it is difficult to see how it could successfully depend upon brightness for guidance in its choices. Such dependence would cause it to choose now the green, now the red.
The first four series of green-red tests so clearly demonstrated discrimination, of some sort, that it was at once necessary to alter the conditions of the experiment. The only criticism of the above method of excluding brightness discrimination, of which I could think, was that the red at no time had been brighter than the green. In other words, that despite a value of 1800 candle meters for the red and only 18 candle meters for the green, the latter still appeared the brighter to the mouse. To meet this objection, I made the extreme brightness values 1 and 1800 candle meters in some of the later series, of which the results appear in Table 24. From day to day different degrees of brightness were used, as is indicated in the second column of the table. Instead of having first one color and then the other the brighter, after the fourth series I changed the position of the lights each time the position of the filters was changed; hence, the table states a certain brightness value for each color instead of for each electric-box.
Series 5 to 14 so clearly indicated discrimination, that it seemed necessary to devise some other means than that of changing the brightnesses of the colored lights themselves to test the assumption that the animals were choosing the brighter light. I therefore removed the light filters so that the colors which had been present as conditions of discrimination were lacking, and arranged the apparatus so that first one box, then the other, was illuminated the more brightly. The purpose of this was to discover whether as the result of their green-red training the mice had acquired the habit of choosing uniformly either the lighter or the darker box. One series was given under the conditions of illumination specified in Table 24 with the result that the brighter box was chosen eight times in ten by No. 151 and every time by No. 152. Since neither of these individuals had previously been trained by white-black tests to go to the white, and since, furthermore, the dancers usually manifest a slight preference for the lower instead of the higher illumination, this result may be interpreted as indicative of dependence upon brightness in the previous color tests. It looks very much indeed as if the green had been chosen, not because of its greenness, but on account of its relatively greater brightness.
This test of brightness preference was followed by two series, 16 and 17, under conditions similar to those of the first four series of the table. For series 16 the value of the light in the left box was 1 candle meter, that of the light in the right box 1800 candle meters. Discrimination was perfect. For series 17 the value for the left remained at 1 candle meter, but that of the right box was decreased to 0. In this series No. 152 was entirely at a loss to know which box to choose. Of course this was an entirely new set of conditions for choice, namely, a colored box, the green or the red as the case might be, beside a dark box, the one which was not illuminated. If the mice really had been choosing correctly because of a habit of avoiding the red or of seeking the green, this method should bring out the fact, for the red box, since with it the disagreeable electric shock had always been associated, should be a box to be avoided. For No. 151 this seemed to be the case.
Series 23 to 27 of Table 24 were given as final and crucial tests of the relation of brightness discrimination to color discrimination. As it is not possible to express in a simple formula the conditions of the tests, a sample series which indicates the brightness of the colors in each of the twenty tests of a series, and in addition the results given by No. 151 in the first of these final series, is reproduced in Table 25. For an animal which had presumably learned perfectly to choose green in preference to red, the record of 8 mistakes in 20 choices as a result of changes in relative brightness is rather bad, and it renders doubtful the existence of color discrimination in any of these experiments. No. 152 showed no ability whatever to choose the green in the first of the series (series 23 of Table 24) of which that of Table 25 is a sample. His record, 10 mistakes in 20 choices, was even poorer than that of No. 151. That both of these mice learned to choose fairly accurately in these final tests is shown by the results of series 24, 25, 26, and 27. I must admit, however, that these records indicate little ability on the part of the animals to discriminate colors.
TABLE 24
GREEN-RED TESTS
Brightnesses Extremely Different for Human Eye Intensities are given in candle meters (c.m.)
NO. 151 NO. 152 SERIES DATE CONDITIONS RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (GREEN) (RED) (GREEN) (RED)
1 April 26 18 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 11 9 7 13 2 27 Same 16 4 16 4 3 28 Same 20 0 17 3 4 29 Same 19 1 19 1 5 30 Green 18 c.m. Red 18 c.m. 9 1 10 0 6 30 Green 64 c.m. Red 18 c.m. 9 1 8 2 7 May 1 Green 6 c.m. Red 1500 c.m. 7 3 9 1 8 1 Green 4 c.m. Red 1500 c.m. 8 2 7 3 9 2 Both varied from 4 to 1500 c.m. 18 2 18 2 10 3 Green 2 c.m. Red 1800 c.m. 6 4 7 3 11 3 Same 10 0 10 0 12 4 Same 7 3 8 2 13 4 Same 8 2 6 4 14 5 Green 1 c.m. Red 1800 c.m. 19 1 19 1
Filters were now removed. An illumination of 15 c.m. was established on one side and an illumination of 0 on the other side, in order to ascertain whether the mice would choose the brighter box. This was done to test the assumption that the green in the previous tests had always appeared brighter to the mice than did the red, and that in consequence they had chosen the brighter box instead of the green box.
TABLE 24—CONTINUED
No. 151 No. 152
SERIES DATE CONDITIONS RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (GREEN) (RED) (GREEN) (RED)
15 May 5 Brighter 15 c.m. 8[1] 2[2] 10[1] 0[2] Darker 0 c.m. 16 5 1 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 10 0 10 0 17 5 1 c.m. on left 0 c.m. on right 9 1 4 6 18 5 Green 18 c.m. Red 18 c.m. 19 1 17 3 19 9 Same 9 1 9 1 20 9 Same 10 0 10 0 21 10 Same 10 0 10 0 22 11 Same 10 0 10 0 23 June 1 Both varied from 1 to 1800 c.m. 12 8 10 10 24 2 Same 18 2 14 6 25 June 3 Both varied from 2 to 1800 c.m. 19 1 17 3 26 4 Same 17 3 17 3 27 5 Same 18 2 18 2
[Footnote 1: Brighter.] [Footnote 2: Darker.]
These long-continued and varied tests with Nos. 151 and 152 revealed three facts: that the mice depend chiefly upon brightness differences in visual discrimination; that they probably have something which corresponds to our red-green vision, although their color experience may be totally unlike ours; and that the red end of the spectrum seems much darker to them than to us, or, in other words, that the least refrangible rays are of lower stimulating value for them than for us.
TABLE 25
GREEN-RED TESTS
June 1, 1906 No. 151
BRIGHTNESS VALUE IN CANDLE RIGHT WRONG TEST POSITION METERS (GREEN) (RED) 1 Green on left Green 4, Red 448 Right — 2 Green on right Green 448, Red 4 Right — 3 Green on right Green 4, Red 448 Right — 4 Green on left Green 448, Red 4 Right — 5 Green on left Green 3, Red 1800 — Wrong 6 Green on right Green 1800, Red 3 — Wrong 7 Green on right Green 3, Red 1800 — Wrong 8 Green on left Green 1800, Red 3 Right — 9 Green on right Green 5, Red 34 Right — 10 Green on left Green 34, Red 5 Right — 11 Green on right Green 6, Red 74 Right — 12 Green on left Green 74, Red 6 Right — 13 Green on left Green 4, Red 448 — Wrong 14 Green on right Green 448, Red 4 Right — 15 Green on right Green 4, Red 448 — Wrong 16 Green on left Green 448, Red 4 Right — 17 Green on right Green 3, Red 1800 — Wrong 18 Green on left Green 1800, Red 3 — Wrong 19 Green on right Green 1800, Red 3 — Wrong 20 Green on left Green 3, Red 1800 Right —
Totals 12 8
So many of the results of my color experiments have indicated the all- important role of brightness vision that I have hesitated to interpret any of them as indicative of true color discrimination. But after I had made all the variations in brightness by which it seemed reasonable to suppose that the mouse would be influenced under ordinary conditions, and after I had introduced all the check tests which seemed worth while, there still remained so large a proportion of correct choices that I was forced to admit the influence of the quality as well as of the intensity of the visual stimulus.
The first of the facts mentioned above, that brightness discrimination is more important in the life of the mouse than color discrimination, is attested by almost all of the experiments whose results have been reported. The second fact, namely, that the dancer possesses something which for the present we may call red-green vision, also has been proved in a fairly satisfactory manner by both the reflected and the transmitted light experiments. I wish now to present, in Table 26, results which strikingly prove the truth of the statement that red appears darker to the dancer than to us.
The brightness conditions which appeared to make the discrimination between green and red most difficult were, so far as my experiments permit the measurement thereof, green from 1 to 4 candle meters with red from 1200 to 1600. Under these conditions the red appeared extremely bright, the green very dark, to the human subject.
According to the description of conditions in Table 26, Nos. 2 and 5 were required to distinguish green from red with the former about 3 candle meters in brightness and the latter about 1800 candle meters. In the eighth series of 20 tests, each of these animals made a perfect record. As it seemed possible that they had learned to go to the darker of the two boxes instead of to the green box, I arranged the following check test. The filters were removed, the illumination of one electric-box was made 74 candle meters, that of the other 3, and the changes of the lighter box from left to right were made at irregular intervals. In February, No. 2 had been trained to go to the black in black-white tests, and at the same time No. 5 had been trained to go to the white in white-black tests. The results of these brightness check tests, as they appear in the table, series 8 a, are indeed striking. Number 2 chose the darker box each time; No. 5 chose it eight times out of ten. Were it not for the fact that memory tests four weeks after his black-white training had proved that No. 2 had entirely lost the influence of his previous experience (he chose white nine times out of ten in the memory series), it might reasonably be urged that this individual chose the darker box because of his experience in the black-white experiment. And what can be said in explanation of the choices of No. 5? I can think of no more reasonable way of accounting for this most unexpected result of the brightness tests than the assumption that both of these animals had learned to discriminate by brightness difference instead of by color.
TABLE 26
GREEN-RED TESTS
Brightnesses Different for Human Eye
No. 2 No. 5
SERIES DATE BRIGHTNESS RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG VALUES (GREEN) (RED) (GREEN) (RED)
1 May 7 Green Red 1800 c.m. 10 10 12 8 2 8 Same 12 8 11 9 3 9 Same 15 5 14 6 4 10 Same 18 2 12 8 5 11 Same 18 2 14 6 6 12 Same 19 1 16 4 7 13 Same 19 1 18 2 8 14 Same 20 0 20 0
Brightness tests without colors were now given to determine whether the mice had been choosing the brighter or the darker instead of the green.
TABLE 26—CONTINUED
NO. 2 NO. 5
SERIES DATE BRIGHTNESS VALUES RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (GREEN) (RED) (GREEN) (RED)
8a 14 Brighter 74 c.m. 0[1] 10[2] 2[1] 8[2] Darker 3 c.m. 9 15 3 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 8 12 16 4 10 16 4 c.m. on left 36 c.m. on right 5 5 7 3 11 16 Green 4 c.m. Red 36 c.m. 9 1 8 2 12 17 11 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 7 3 6 4 13 17 Green 11 c.m. Red 1800 c.m. 9 1 8 2 14 18 Mixed values 3 to 1800 c.m. 7 3 8 2 15 19 Same 7 3 7 3 16 20 Same 7 3 7 3 17 21 Same 7 3 9 1 18 22 Same 9 1 8 2 19 23 Same 7 3 9 1 20 24 Same 10 0 8 2 21 25 Same 10 0 9 1 22 26 Same 9 1 10 0
[Footnote 1: Brighter] [Footnote 2: Darker]
Immediately after the brightness series, the influence of making first one color, then the other, the brighter was studied. Throughout series 9 the brightness value of the left box remained 3 candle meters, that of the right side 1800 candle meters. Number 2 was so badly confused by this change that his mistakes in this series numbered 12; No. 5 made only 4 incorrect choices. Then series after series was given under widely differing conditions of illumination. The expression "mixed values," which occurs in Table 26 in connection with series 14 to 22 inclusive, means that the brightnesses of the green and the red boxes were changed from test to test in much the way indicated by the sample series of Table 25. In view of the results of these 22 series, 320 tests for each of two mice, it is evident that the dancer is able to discriminate visually by some other factor than brightness. What this factor is I am not prepared to say. It may be something akin to our color experience, it may be distance effect. No other possibilities occur to me.
Table 26 shows that discrimination was relatively easy for Nos. 2 and 5 with green at 3 candle meters and red at 1800. That their discrimination was made on the basis of the greater brightness of the red, instead of on the basis of color, is indicated by the results of the brightness check series 8a. Increase in the brightness of the green rendered discrimination difficult for a time, but it soon improved, and by no changes in the relative brightness of the two colors was it possible to prevent correct choice.
In addition to giving point to the statement that red appears darker to the dancer than to us, the above experiment shows that the animals depend upon brightness when they can, and that their ability to discriminate color differences is extremely poor, so poor indeed that it is doubtful whether their records are better than those of a totally color blind person would be under similar conditions. Surely in view of such results it is unsafe to claim that the dancer possesses color vision similar to ours.
Perfectly trained as they were, by their prolonged green-red tests, to choose the green, or what in mouse experience corresponds to our green, Nos. 2 and 5 offered an excellent opportunity for further tests of blue- green discrimination. For in view of their previous training there should be no question of preference for the blue or of a tendency to depend upon brightness in the series whose results constitute Table 27.
TABLE 27 BLUE-GREEN TESTS
NO. 2 NO. 5
SERIES DATE BRIGHTNESS VALUES RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (BLUE) (GREEN) (BLUE) (GREEN)
1 June 1 Blue 74 c.m. Green 36 c.m. 3 7 3 7 2 2 Same 5 5 4 6 3 3 Same 5 5 6 4 4 4 Same 6 4 3 7 5 5 Same 6 4 5 5 6 6 Blue 21 c.m. Green 21 c.m. 6 4 7 3 7 7 Same 2 8 3 7 8 8 Same 5 5 4 6 9 9 Same 3 7 6 4 10 10 Same 2 8 4 6 11 12 Same 6 4 3 7 12 13 Blue 36 c.m. Green 21 c.m. 3 7 4 6 13 14 Same 5 5 14 15 Blue 62 c.m. Green 21 c.m. 4 6 15 16 Same 5 5 16 17 Same 5 5 17 18 Same 6 4
Now, as a final test, blue and green glasses were placed over the electric-boxes, the brightness of the two was equalized for the human eye, and the tests of series 18 and 19 were given to No. 2:—
TABLE 27—CONTINUED
NO. 2 SERIES DATE BRIGHTNESS VALUES RIGHT WRONG (Blue) (Green)
18 18 Blue 62 c.m. Green 21 c.m 4 6 19 19 Same 6 4 20 20 Blue 21 c.m. Green 88 c.m. 2 8
The green was now made much the brighter.
21 21 Blue 21 c.m. Green 18 c.m. 7 3 22 23 Same 8 2
To begin with, the blue and the green were made quite bright for the human subject, blue 74 candle meters, green 36. Later the brightness of both was first decreased, then increased, in order to ascertain whether discrimination was conditioned by the absolute strength of illumination. No evidence of discrimination was obtained with any of the several conditions of illumination in seventeen series of ten tests each.
On the supposition that the animals were blinded by the brightness of the light which had been used in some of the tests, similar tests were made with weaker light. The results were the same. I am therefore convinced that the animals did justice to their visual ability in these experiments.
Finally, it seemed possible that looking directly at the source of light might be an unfavorable condition for color discrimination, and that a chamber flooded with colored light from above and from one end would prove more satisfactory. To test this conjecture two thicknesses of blue glass were placed over one electric-box, two plates of green glass over the other; the incandescent lamps were then fixed in such positions that the blue and the green within the two boxes appeared to the experimenter, as he viewed them from the position at which the mouse made its choice, of the same brightness.
Mouse No. 2 was given two series of tests, series 18 and 19, under these conditions, with the result that he showed absolutely no ability to tell the blue box from the green box. The opportunity was now taken to determine how quickly No. 2 would avail himself of any possibility of discriminating by means of brightness. With the blue at 21 candle meters, the green was increased to about 1800. Immediately discrimination appeared, and in the second series (22 of Table 27) there were only two mistakes.
The results of the blue-green experiments with light transmitted from in front of the animal and from above it are in entire agreement with those of the experiments in which reflected light was used. Since the range of intensities of illumination was sufficiently great to exclude the possibility of blinding and of under illumination, it is necessary to conclude that the dancer does not possess blue-green vision.
Again I must call attention to the fact that the behavior of the mice in these experiments is even more significant of their lack of discriminating ability than are the numerical results of the tables. After almost every series of tests, whether or not it came out numerically in favor of discrimination, I was forced to add the comment, "No satisfactory evidence of discrimination."
We have now examined the results of green-red, green-blue, and blue-green tests. One other important combination of the colors which were used in these experiments is possible, namely, blue-red. This is the most important of all the combinations in view of the results already described, for these colors represent the extremes of the visible spectrum, and might therefore be discriminable, even though those which are nearer together in the spectral series were not.
TABLE 28 BLUE-RED TESTS
No. 2 No. 205 SERIES DATE BRIGHTNESS VALUES RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (BLUE) (RED) (BLUE) (RED)
1 July 31 1800 c.m. on left 24 c.m. on right 5 5 6 4 2 Aug. 1 21 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 6 4 6 4 3 2 1800 c.m. on left 21 c.m. on right 8 2 6 4 4 3 19 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 9 1 6 4 5 4 1800 c.m. on left 7 c.m. on right 7 3 5 5 6 5 6 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 10 0 7 3 7 6 18 c.m. on left 74 c.m. on right 10 0 9 1 8 7 1800 c.m. on left 7 c.m. on right 8 2 8 2 9 8 7 c.m. on left 1800 c.m. on right 7 3 8 2 10 9 Mixed values 6 to 1800 c.m. 8 2 9 1 11 10 Blue 3 c.m. Red 1800 c.m. 7 3 6 4
Brightness tests were now made, without the use of colors.
11a 10 4 6 5 5
12 10 Blue 3 c.m. Red 8 c.m. 4 6 6 4 13 11 Blue 3 c.m. Red 7200 c.m. 8 2 5 5 14 13 Mixed values 3 to 7200 c.m. 7 3 7 3 15 13 Same 7 3 9 1 16 14 Blue 3 to 6 c.m. Red 112 to 3650 c.m. 10 0 10 0
Series were now given to test the assumption that red appears dark to the dancer.
17 14 Darkness on one side Red 3 c.m. 5 5 7 3 18 14 Blue 3 to 3650 c.m. Red 3 to 3650 c.m. 10 0 10 0 19 15 Darkness on one side Red 3 c.m. 5 5 4 6 20 15 Blue 3 to 3650 c.m. Red 3 to 3650 c.m. 10 0 9 1 21 16 Darkess on one side Red 72 c.m. 5 5 7 3 22 16 Darkness on one side Red 1800 c.m. 6 4 10 0
As is shown by the results in Table 28, no combination of brightnesses rendered correct choice impossible in the case of the blue-red tests which are now to be described. Choice was extremely difficult at times, even more so perhaps than the table would lead one to suppose, and it is quite possible that color played no part in the discrimination. But that brightness difference in the colors was not responsible for whatever success these mice attained in selecting the right box is proved by the brightness-without-color series which follows series II of the table. Neither No. 2 nor No. 205 showed preference for the lighter or the darker box. At the end of the sixteenth blue-red series, I was convinced that one of two conclusions must be drawn from the experiment: either the dancers possess a kind of blue-red vision, or red is of such a value for them that no brightness of visible green or blue precisely matches it.
The latter possibility was further tested by an experiment whose results appear in series 17 to 22 inclusive, of Table 28. The conditions of series 17 were a brightness value of 0 in one box (darkness) and in the other red of a brightness of 3 candle meters. Despite the fact that they had been perfectly trained in blue-red tests to avoid the red, neither of the mice seemed able to discriminate the red from the darkness and to avoid it. This was followed by a series in which the brightness of both the blue and the red was varied between 3 and 3650 candle meters, with the striking result that neither mouse made any mistakes. In series 19 red was used with darkness as in series 17, and again there was a total lack of discrimination. Series 20 was a repetition of series 18, with practically the same result. I then attempted to find out, by increasing the brightness of the red, how great must be its value in order that the dancers should distinguish it readily from darkness. For the tests of series 21 it was made 72 candle meters, but discrimination did not clearly appear. At 1800 candle meters, as is shown in series 22, the red was sufficiently different in appearance from total darkness to enable No. 205 to discriminate perfectly between the two electric-boxes. For No. 2 discrimination was more difficult, but there was no doubt about his ability. It would appear from these tests that the dancers had not learned to avoid red. Therefore we are still confronted with the question, can they see colors?
TABLE 29
VISUAL CHECK TESTS With the Electric-boxes Precisely Alike Visually
No. 151 No. 152 SERIES DATE RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG
1 Sept. 29 6 4 4 6 2 30 5 5 6 6 3 Oct. 1 3 7 4 6 4 2 5 5 3 7 5 3 3 7 5 5 6 4 6 4 5 5 7 5 5 5 5 5 8 6 — — 3 7 9 7 — — 6 4 10 8 — — 4 6
Averages 4.7 5.3 4.5 5.5
The account of my color vision experiments is finished. If it be objected that other than visual conditions may account for whatever measure of discriminating ability, apart from brightness discrimination, appears in some of the series, the results of the series of Table 29, in which all conceivable visual means of discrimination were purposely excluded, and those of the several check tests which have been described from time to time in the foregoing account, should furnish a satisfactory and definite answer. I am satisfied that whatever discrimination occurred was due to vision; whether we are justified in calling it color vision is quite another question.
I conclude from my experimental study of vision that although the dancer does not possess a color sense like ours, it probably discriminates the colors of the red end of the spectrum from those of other regions by difference in the stimulating value of light of different wave lengths, that such specific stimulating value is radically different in nature from the value of different wave lengths for the human eye, and that the red of the spectrum has a very low stimulating value for the dancer. In the light of these experiments we may safely conclude that many, if not most, of the tests of color vision in animals which have been made heretofore by other investigators have failed to touch the real problem because the possibility of brightness discrimination was not excluded.
Under the direction of Professor G. H. Parker, Doctor Karl Waugh has examined the structure of the retina of the dancing mouse for me, with the result that only a single type of retinal element was discovered. Apparently the animals possess rod-like cells, but nothing closely similar to the cones of the typical mammalian retina. This is of peculiar interest and importance in connection with the results which I have reported in the foregoing pages, because the rods are supposed to have to do with brightness or luminosity vision and the cones with color vision. In fact, it is usually supposed that the absence of cones in the mammalian retina indicates the lack of color vision. That this inference of functional facts from structural conditions is correct I am by no means certain, but at any rate all of the experiments which I have made to determine the visual ability of the dancer go to show that color vision, if it exists at all, is extremely poor. It is gratifying indeed to learn, after such a study of behavior as has just been described, that the structural conditions, so far as we are able to judge at present, justify the conclusions which have been drawn.
CHAPTER XI
THE ROLE OF SIGHT IN THE DAILY LIFE OF THE DANCER
Darting hither and thither in its cage, whirling rapidly, now to the left, now to the right, running in circles, passing through holes in the nest box quickly and neatly, the dancer, it would seem, must have excellent sight. But careful observation of its behavior modifies this inference. For it appears that a pair of mice dancing together, or near one another, sometimes collide, and that it is only those holes with which the animal is familiar that are entered skillfully. In fact, the longer one observes the behavior of the dancer under natural conditions, the more he comes to believe in the importance of touch, and motor tendencies. Sight, which at first appears to be the chief guiding sense, comes to take a secondary place. In this chapter it is my purpose to show by means of simple experiments what part sight plays in the dancer's life of habit formation.
The evidence on this subject has been obtained from four sources: (1) observation of the behavior of dancers in their cages; (2) observation of their behavior when blinded; (3) observation of their behavior in a great variety of discrimination experiments, many of which have already been described; and (4) observation of their behavior in labyrinth experiments which were especially planned to exhibit the importance of the several kinds of vision which the dancer might be supposed to possess. The evidence from the first three of these sources may be presented summarily, for much of it has already appeared in earlier chapters. That from the fourth source will constitute the bulk of the material of this chapter.
My observation of the behavior of the mice has furnished conclusive evidence of their ability to see moving objects. But that they do not see very distinctly, and that they do not have accurate perception of the form of objects, are conclusions which are supported by observations that I have made under both natural and experimental conditions. In Chapters VII, VIII, IX, and X, I have presented an abundance of evidence of brightness vision and, in addition, indications of a specific sensitiveness to wave length which may be said to correspond to our color vision. It is noteworthy, however, that all of the experimental proofs of visual ability were obtained as the result of long periods of training. Seldom, indeed, in my experience with them, have the dancers under natural conditions exhibited forms of activity which were unquestionably guided by vision.
It is claimed by those who have experimented with blinded dancers that the loss of sight decreases the amount and rapidity of movement, and the ability of the animals to avoid obstacles.
By means of the discrimination method previously used in the preliminary experiments on color vision, a full description of which may be found in Chapter IX, p. 133, the dancers' ability to perceive form was tested. Immediately after the two males A and B had been given the "food-box" tests, whose results appear in Table 15, they were tested in the same apparatus and by the same method for their ability to discriminate a rectangular food-box from a round one. In the case of the color discrimination tests, it will be remembered that the circular tin boxes 5 cm. in diameter by 1.5 cm. in depth, one of which was covered with blue paper, the other with orange, were used. For the form discrimination tests I used instead one of the circular boxes of the dimensions given above and a rectangular box 8.5 cm. long, 5.5 cm. wide and 2.5 cm. deep. "Force" was placed in the circular box. The tests were given, in series of 20, daily.
TABLE 30
VISUAL FORM TESTS
SERIES DATE MOUSE A MOUSE B RIGHT WRONG RIGHT WRONG (CIRCULAR (RECTANGU- (CIRCULAR (RECTANGU- BOX) LAR BOX) BOX) LAR BOX) 1 Jan. 5 10 10 9 11 2 7 12 8 13 7 3 10 6 14 10 10 4 11 7 13 10 10 5 12 9 11 10 10 6 13 11 9 11 9 7 14 13 7 9 11 8 15 10 10 11 9 9 16 10 10 11 9 10 17 11 9 9 11 11 18 11 9 12 8 12 19 12 8 10 10 13 20 10 10 12 8 14 21 10 10 8 12 15 22 10 10 10 10
Totals 152 148 155 145
The results of 15 series of these tests, as may be seen by the examination of Table 30, are about as definitely negative, so far as form discrimination is in question, as they possibly could be. From the first series to the last there is not one which justifies the inference that either of the dancers depended upon the form of the boxes in making its choice. In view of the general criticisms I have made concerning the use of hunger as a motive in experiments on animal behavior, and in view of the particular criticisms of this very method of testing the discriminating powers of the mouse, it may seem strange that space should be given to a report of these tests. I sympathize with the feeling, if any one has it, but, at the same time, I wish to call attention to the fact that almost any mammal which is capable of profiting by experience, and which, under the same conditions, could distinguish the rectangular box from the circular one, would have chosen the right box with increasing accuracy as the result of such experience. The results are important in my opinion, not because they either prove or disprove the ability of the dancer to discriminate these particular forms, the discrimination of which might fairly be expected of any animal with an image-forming eye, but because they demonstrate an important characteristic of the dancing mouse, namely, its indifference to the straightforward or direct way of doing things.
Most mammals which have been experimentally studied have proved their eagerness and ability to learn the shortest, quickest, and simplest route to food without the additional spur of punishment for wandering. With the dancer it is different. It is content to be moving; whether the movement carries it directly towards the food is of secondary importance. On its way to the food-box, no matter whether the box be slightly or strikingly different from its companion box, the dancer may go by way of the wrong box, may take a few turns, cut some figure-eights, or even spin like a top for seconds almost within vibrissa-reach of the food-box, and all this even though it be very hungry. Activity is pre-eminently important in the dancer's life.
In passing I may emphasize the importance of the fact that at no time did the brightness or color discrimination tests furnish evidence of attempts on the part of the dancers to choose by means of slight differences in the form of the cardboards or the cardboard carriers. Several times form differences, which were easily perceivable by the human subject, were introduced in order to discover whether the mice would detect them and learn to discriminate thereby instead of by the visual conditions of brightness or color. As these experiments failed to furnish evidences of form discrimination, the following special test in the discrimination box was devised.
The color discrimination box of Chapter X was arranged so that the light at the entrance to each electric-box had a value of 20 candle meters, less the diminution caused by a piece of ground glass which was placed over the end of the electric-boxes to diffuse the light. The windows through which the light entered the electric-boxes were covered with pieces of black cardboard; in one of these cardboards I had cut a circular opening 4 cm. in diameter, and in the other an opening of the same area but markedly different shape. These openings are shown in Figure 22. As the mouse approached the entrance to the electric-boxes, it was confronted by these two equally illuminated areas, whose chief difference was one of form. Difference in the amount of light within the boxes was excluded so far as possible. The question which I asked was, can the dancer discriminate by means of this difference in visual form?
For the purpose of settling this point and of gaining additional knowledge of the role of vision, two individuals were tested in the discrimination box under the conditions which have just been described. During the first ten days of the experiment each of these mice, Nos. 420 and 425, was given a series of ten tests daily. At the end of this period experimentation with No. 425 had to be discontinued, and the number of daily tests given to No. 420 was increased to twenty.
Instead of taking space for the presentation of the daily records, I may state the general results of the tests. Neither of the mice learned to choose the right box by means of form discrimination. In fact, there was absolutely no sign of discrimination at any time during the tests. This result is as surprising as it is interesting. I could not at first believe that the mice were unable to perceive the difference in the lighted areas, but assumed that they were prevented from getting the outlines of the areas by the blinding effect of the light. However, decreasing the intensity of the illumination did not alter the result. According to the indications of this experiment, the dancer's ability to perceive visual form is extremely poor.
Thus far the purpose of our experiments has been to ascertain what the dancer is enabled to do by sight. Suppose we now approach the problem of the role of this sense by trying to find out what it can do without sight.
For the investigation of this matter the labyrinth method seemed eminently suitable. The first form of labyrinth which was used in these visual tests appears in ground plan in Figure 23. It was made of 1-1/2 cm. boards. The length was 52 cm., the width 17 cm., the depth 10 cm. Each of the doorways, I (the entrance), 1, 2, 3, and O (the exit), was 5 by 5 cm. The alleys were 2-1/2 cm. wide. For this width the necessity is obvious from what has already been said of the animal's propensity to whirl on all occasions. As the mice almost never tried to climb up the walls, no cover for the labyrinth was needed. The direct route is indicated by the symbols I-1-2-3-O. If an error be defined as a choice of the wrong path as the animal progressed toward the exit, five mistakes were possible in the forward course: the first by turning to the left at the entrance; the second by failing to pass through doorway 1; the third by turning to the right after passing through doorway 1; the fourth by failing to pass through doorway 3, and the fifth by turning to the left after passing through 3. In case the mouse retraced its course, any mistakes made as it again progressed towards O were counted, as at first, no matter how many times it went over the same ground. Thus an individual might make the same mistake several times in the course of a single test in the labyrinth.
With this labyrinth Nos. 7, 998, 15, 16, 151, and 152 were tested. At first a record was kept of the time which elapsed from the instant the animal entered I to the instant it emerged at O, of the path which it followed, and of the number of errors which it made; but later only the number of errors was recorded.
TABLE 31
THE ROLE OF SIGHT
Labyrinth-B Experiments
NO. 7 NO. 998
TEST DATE TIME ERRORS TIME ERRORS 1 June 16 66" 8 127" 19 2 16 11 0 94 12 3 16 15 2 18 3 4 16 7 0 13 2 5 16 5 0 10 1 6 18 61 15 12 3 7 18 13 3 14 4 8 18 14 5 8 1 9 18 24 9 16 2 10 18 10 1 9 1 11 19 36 13 80 17 12 19 8 3 10 1 13 19 6 1 7 1 14 19 9 1 8 0 15 19 12 2 7 0 16 20 14 1 25 0 17 20 28 3 18 20 No efforts No efforts to escape to escape
TABLE 32
LABYRINTH-B EXPERIMENTS
with
Electric Shock given as Punishment for Mistakes
No. 7 No. 998 TEST DATE CONDITION ERRORS CONDITION ERRORS
1 June 29 Light 4 Light 9 2 29 Light 1 Light 3 3 29 Light 1 Light 2 4 29 Light 0 Light 0 5 29 Light 0 Light 0 6 29 Light 0 Light 0 7 29 Light 1 Light 0 8 29 Light 0 Light 0 9 29 Light 1 Darkness 0 10 29 Light 1 Light 0 11 29 Light 1 Darkness 0 12 29 Light 0 Light 0 13 29 Light 0 Light 0 14 29 Light 0 Light 0 15 29 Light 0 Light 0 16 29 Light 0 Light 0 17 29 Darkness 2 Darkness 0 18 29 Light 2 Light 0 with paper 19 29 Light 0 Light 0 20 29 Darkness 0 Light 0 with paper 21 29 Light 0 Light 0 22 29 Light 0 Darkness 0 23 29 Light 0 Odorless 0 24 June 29 Light 0 Darkness 0 25 29 Light 0 26 29 Darkness 4 27 29 Light with paper 1 28 29 Light 0 29 29 Light with paper 1 30 29 Darkness 0 31 29 Odorless 2 32 29 Darkness 4
As the results in Table 31 show, the time and number of errors rapidly diminished. Number 7, for example, made no errors in the second test. The chiefly significant fact which appeared in these preliminary experiments, however, was that the mice soon ceased to care whether they got out of the labyrinth or not. After they knew the path perfectly, they would enter the wrong passages repeatedly and wander about indefinitely. It was obvious, therefore, that the labyrinth could not be used to reveal the role of sight unless some sufficiently strong motive for continuous effort to escape from it could be discovered. Naturally I looked to the electric shock for aid.
The labyrinth of Figure 23, which for convenience in distinguishing it from several other forms to be described later I have designated as labyrinth B, was placed upon a board 90 cm. long and 30 cm. wide about which had been wound two pieces of phosphor bronze wire after the manner described on p. 94. At O, Figure 24, there was an opening closed by a swinging door which led into a box 40 by 24 cm. In one corner of this box was a small nest-box. The significance of this rearrangement of the labyrinth is apparent. As in the preliminary tests, the dancer was started at I, but instead of being allowed to wander about without any other result than delay in escape, it was given a shock each time it made an error. The satisfaction of escaping from the narrow bounds of the labyrinth's passages, which alone was not strong enough to impel a dancer constantly to do its best to escape, was thus supplemented by the powerful and all-controlling tendency to avoid the disagreeable stimulus which resulted from entering certain of the passages. The result of this modification of method is strikingly exhibited by the data of Table 32.
This table was constructed for the purpose of exhibiting the principal features of the results obtained with labyrinth B in certain preliminary experiments in which the conditions were changed in various ways. Chief among the important facts which appear in the illustrative data (for Nos. 7 and 998) which are presented, are the following. The dancers readily learn the path of labyrinth B so that they can follow it quickly and with perfect accuracy. After familiarity with the direct path from entrance to exit has been gained, they become indifferent about escaping and tend to wander aimlessly. The introduction of the electric shock as punishment for the choice of the wrong passage impels them to do their best to avoid errors. The path once learned can be followed in total darkness with few or no errors. Table 32 indicates marked differences in the behavior of No. 7 and No. 998. The latter learned the path readily and was little disturbed by any of the changes in conditions. In total darkness he followed the path rapidly and accurately, as was indicated by the time of the trip and the path that he left on a sheet of smoked paper that had been placed on the floor of the labyrinth as a means of obtaining a record of the errors made. The presence of the smoked paper did not seem to interfere at all with his behavior, nor did the thorough washing of the labyrinth and the resultant removal of its odors. In the case of No. 7 the opposite was true. She did not learn the path readily, was confused by any change in conditions, had great difficulty in finding her way in darkness, made errors when the smoked paper was placed on the floor and after the odors of the labyrinth had been removed by washing. Of the six dancers which were observed in these preliminary tests, No. 7 alone gave convincing evidence of the importance of sight.
I think we may say in the light of the results of the table that such errors as appear in the darkness tests are due rather to the disturbing influence of a change in the conditions of the experiment than to the exclusion of visual data, for as many or more errors were sometimes caused simply by changing the position of the labyrinth, placing smoked paper on the floor, or by introducing a new odor at some point. The exclusion of the possibility of guidance by smell and touch did not seriously interfere with the animal's ability to follow the path.
The results which have just been considered seemed to be of sufficient interest and importance to justify the further use of the labyrinth method in the investigation of the role of vision. A series of experiments with labyrinth B was therefore planned so that the importance of sight, touch, and smell in connection with this form of habit should be more satisfactorily exhibited. Does the dancer follow the path by sight, touch, smell, by all, or by no one of them?
This series of tests with labyrinth B, whose several purposes may best be explained in connection with the various kinds of tests enumerated below, consisted of:
I. A preliminary test in which the dancer was permitted to wander about in the labyrinth, without being shocked, until it finally escaped to the nest-box by way of the exit. Thus the animal was given an opportunity to discover that escape from the maze was possible.
II. This was immediately followed by a series of tests at the rate of about one per minute, with an electric shock as punishment for every mistake. This was continued without interruption until the path had been followed without error five times in succession.
III. The labyrinth was now moved about 3 cm. to one side so that it covered a new floor area, and a test was given for the purpose of ascertaining whether the mouse had been following a trail on the floor.
IV. Tests with smoked paper on the floor were now alternated with tests in which the floor was plain. The alternation was rendered necessary by the fact that the paper was laid over the electric wires and therefore prevented the punishment of mistakes. The purpose of these tests was to discover whether the smoked paper, which was an essential condition for the next test, was itself a disturbing condition. These tests were continued until the animal had followed the path correctly, despite the smoked paper, twice in succession.
V. The electric lights were now turned out and tests were given in total darkness, with smoked paper on the floor as a means of obtaining a record of the number of errors. These tests were continued until the path had been followed once correctly.
VI. The labyrinth was now thoroughly washed with warm water, to which a little kerosene had been added, and quickly dried over a steam radiator. This usually necessitated a delay of about five minutes. As soon as the labyrinth was dry, tests were given to discover whether the odors of the various passages had been serving as important guiding conditions. These tests were continued until the path had been followed once without error.
VII. A final test in darkness completed the series.
As it was not possible for the observer to watch the animal and thus to count the number of mistakes which it made in total darkness, the simple method of placing a piece of smoked paper on the floor of the labyrinth was used. The mouse left a graphic record of its path on the paper and from this the number of errors could be ascertained. In the tests now to be described the smoked paper was placed upon the electric wires, but later a form of electric labyrinth was devised in which it was underneath and therefore did not interfere with the electric shock.
The above series of tests was given under the same external conditions in a dark-room to six pairs of dancers. In all cases, two individuals, a male and a female, which had been kept in the same cage, were experimented with at the same time, i.e. one was permitted to rest in the nest-box while the other was being put through a test. This was done in order that the comparison of the results for males and females should be perfectly fair.
The detailed results of this long series of tests may be presented for only two individuals, Nos. 210 and 215, Table 33. In this table lines separate the results of the seven different kinds of tests.
TABLE 33
THE ROLE OF SIGHT, TOUCH, AND SMELL IN LABYRINTH EXPERIMENTS
No. 210 No. 215
TEST CONDITION ERRORS CONDITION ERRORS
I. 1 No shock 9 I. No shock 2
II. 2 Shock 5 II. Shock 3 3 Shock 4 Shock 1 4 Shock 2 Shock 0 5 Shock 3 Shock 0 6 Shock 0 Shock 0 7 Shock 0 Shock 0 8 Shock 0 Shock 0
9 Shock 0 III. Labyrinth 0 moved
10 Shock 0 IV. Paper on floor 4
III. 11 Labyrinth 0 No paper (shock) 0 moved
IV. 12 Paper on 0 0 floor 13 No paper 0 No paper 0 (shock) 14 Paper 1 Paper 1 15 No paper 0 No paper 0 16 Paper 7 Paper 4 17 No paper 0 No paper 0 18 Paper 0 Paper 0 19 No paper 0 No paper 0 20 Paper 4 Paper 0 21 No paper 0 No paper 0 22 Paper 2 V. Darkness 0 23 No paper 2 VI. Labyrinth 2 24 Paper 1 washed 0 25 No paper 0 VII. Darkness 2 26 Paper 0 27 No paper 0 28 Paper 0 29 No paper 0 V. 30 Darkness 0 VI. 31 Labyrinth 2 washed 32 0 VII. 33 Darkness 0
The average results for the twelve individuals (six of each sex) which were subjected to the tests, I have arranged in Table 34. The Roman numerals at the top of the table designate the seven groups of tests, and the figures under each, the numerical results of the tests. I may explain and comment upon the averages of the several columns of this table in turn.
Column I gives the number of errors made in the preliminary test. Curiously enough, the males made many more errors than the females.
For the second group of tests (II) two results have been tabulated: the number of the first correct test, and the total number of tests before the path was followed correctly five times in succession. The first correct trip came usually after not more than five or six tests, but five successive correct trips demanded on the average at least fourteen training tests.
Destruction of the floor path by movement of the labyrinth to one side, without changing its relations to the points of the compass, disturbed the mice very little. Only four of the twelve individuals made any mistakes as a result of the change in the tactual conditions, and the average error as it appears in Column III is only .3.
TABLE 34
ROLE OF SIGHT, TOUCH, AND SMELL IN LABYRINTH EXPERIMENTS
II. IV. TRAINING TESTS SMOKED I. NO OF TESTS BEFORE III. PAPER ON MALES PRELIMINARY CORRECT LABYRINTH FLOOR TEST. MOVED. NO OF TIMES ERRORS FIRST TIME FIVE TIMES ERRORS BEFORE COR- RECT TWICE
210 9 5 9 0 9 212 2 3 8 1 3 214 6 10 28 0 22 220 25 4 8 0 14 410 11 6 20 0 10 420 14 6 14 1 7
AVERAGES 11.2 5.7 14.5 .3 10.8
FEMALES
211 16 6 10 1 5 213 7 5 14 1 21 215 2 3 7 0 6 225 14 6 18 0 14 415 6 6 13 0 3 425 10 7 13 0 8
AVERAGES 9.2 5.5 12.5 .3 9.5
V. DARKNESS VI. MALES LABYRINTH VII. ERRORS IN NO. OF TESTS WASHED. DARKNESS. FIRST TEST BEFORE COR'CT ERRORS ERRORS
210 0 1 2 0 212 2 2 0 0 214 0 1 — 0 220 2 4 2 0 410 1 3 2 1 420 2 4 1 4
Averages 1.2 2.5 1.2 0.8
FEMALES
211 2 2 0 0 213 2 2 — 3 215 0 1 2 2 225 3 2 0 0 415 1 3 2 1 425 1 7 0 0
Averages 1.5 2.8 0.7 1.0
That covering the floor with smoked paper forced the mice to relearn the path, in large measure, is evident from the results of Column IV. An average of ten tests was necessary to enable the mice to follow the path correctly. It is almost certain, however, that the interference with the perfectly formed labyrinth habit which this change in the condition of the floor caused was not due to the removal of important tactual sense data.
As Column V shows, the number of errors in total darkness is very small. Some individuals gave no sign of being disturbed by the absence of visual guidance, others at first seemed confused. I have given in the table the number of errors in the first darkness test and the number of the first test in which no mistakes occurred.
No more disturbance of the dancer's ability to follow the path which it had learned resulted from washing the labyrinth thoroughly than from darkening the room. Indeed it is clear from Column VI that the path was not followed by the use of smell. However, the test in darkness, after the odor of the box had been removed, proved conclusively that in most cases the mice could follow the path correctly without visual or olfactory guidance.
The behavior of 18 individuals as it was observed in labyrinth B makes perfectly evident three important facts, (1) In following the path which it has learned, the dancer in most instances is not guided to any considerable extent by a trail (odor or touch) which has been formed by its previous journeys over the route; (2) sight is quite unnecessary for the easy and perfect execution of the labyrinth habit, for even those individuals which are at first confused by the darkening of the experiment room are able after a few tests to follow the path correctly; (3) and, finally, smell, which according to current opinion is the chiefly important sense of mice and rats, is not needful for the performance of this habitual act.
At this point we may very fittingly ask, what sense data are necessary for the guidance of the series of acts which constitutes the labyrinth habit? I answer, probably none. A habit once formed, the senses have done their part; henceforth it is a motor process, whose initiation is conditioned by the activity of a receptive organ (at times a sense receptor), but whose form is not necessarily dependent upon immediate impressions from eye, nose, vibrissae, or even from internal receptors. These are statements of my opinion; whether they express the truth, either wholly or in part, only further experimentation can decide.
In considering the results of these labyrinth tests it is important that we distinguish clearly those which have to do with the conditions of habit formation from those which instead have to do with the conditions of habit performance. Sense data which are absolutely necessary for the learning of a labyrinth path may be of little or no importance for the execution of the act of following the path after the learning process has been completed. Thus far in connection with the labyrinth tests we have discussed only the relations of sight, touch, and smell to what I have called habit performance. We may now ask what part these senses play in the formation of a labyrinth habit.
A very definite answer to this question is furnished by observation of the behavior of the dancers in the tests. Most of them continuously made use of their eyes, their noses, and their vibrissae. Some individuals used one form of receptive organ almost exclusively. I frequently noticed that those individuals which touched and smelled of the labyrinth passages most carefully gave least evidence of the use of sight. It is safe to say, then, that under ordinary conditions habit formation in the dancer is conditioned by the use of sight, touch, and smell, but that these senses are of extremely different degrees of importance in different individuals. And further, that, although in the case of some individuals the loss of sight would not noticeably delay habit formation, in the case of others it would seriously interfere with the process. When deprived of one sense, the dancer depends upon its remaining channels of communication with environment. Indeed there are many reasons for inferring that if deprived of sight, touch, and smell it would still be able to learn a labyrinth path; and there are reasonable grounds for the belief that a habit once formed can be executed in the absence of all special sense data. Apparently the various receptive organs of the body furnish the dancer with impressions which serve as guides to action and facilitate habit formation, although they are not necessary for habit performance.
The reader may wonder why I have not carried out systematic experiments to determine accurately and quantitatively the part which each sense plays in the formation of a labyrinth habit instead of basing my inferences upon incidental observation of the behavior of the dancers. The reason is simply this: the number and variety of experiments which were suggested by the several directions in which this investigation developed rendered the performance of all of them impossible. I have chosen to devote my time to other lines of experimentation because a very thorough study of the conditions of habit formation has recently been made by Doctor Watson.[1]
[Footnote 1: Watson, J. B., Psychological Review, Monograph Supplement, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1907.]
What is the role of sight in the dancing mouse? How shall we answer the question? The evidence which has been obtained in the course of my study of the animal indicates that brightness vision is fairly acute, that color vision is poor, that although form is not clearly perceived, movement is readily perceived. My observations under natural conditions justify the conclusion that sight is not of very great importance in the daily life of the dancer, and my observations under experimental conditions strongly suggest the further conclusion that movement and changes in brightness are the only visual conditions which to any considerable extent control the activity of the animal.
CHAPTER XII
EDUCABILITY: METHODS OF LEARNING
Nearly all of the experiments described in earlier chapters have revealed facts concerning the educability of the dancer. In order to supplement the knowledge of this subject thus incidentally gained and to discover the principles of educability, the specially devised experiments whose results appear in this and succeeding chapters were arranged and carried out with a large number of mice. In the work on the modifiability of behavior I have attempted to determine (1) by what methods the dancer is capable of profiting by experience, (2) the degree of rapidity of learning, (3) the permanency of changes wrought in behavior, (4) the effect of one kind of training upon others, (5) the relation of re-training to training, and (6) the relation of all these matters to age, sex, and individuality.
As it is obvious that knowledge of these subjects is a necessary condition for the intelligent appreciation of the capacities of an animal, as well as of the choice of methods by which it may be trained advantageously, perhaps it is not too much to expect that this investigation of the nature and conditions of educability in the dancing mouse may give us some new insight into the significance of certain aspects of human education and may serve to suggest ways in which we may measure and increase the efficiency of our educational methods.
Merely for the sake of convenience of description I shall classify the methods which have been employed as problem methods, labyrinth methods, and discrimination methods. That these names are not wholly appropriate is suggested by the fact that discrimination necessarily occurs in connection with each of them. As problem methods we may designate those tests of initiative and modifiability which involve the opening of doors by pushing or pulling them, and the climbing of an inclined ladder. An example of the labyrinth method has been presented in Chapter XI. The name discrimination method I have applied to those tests which involve the choice of one of two visual, tactual, or olfactory conditions. The white-black discrimination tests, for example, served to reveal the rapidity and permanency of learning as well as the presence of brightness vision.
In the case of most mammals whose educability has been studied experimentally, problem methods have proved to be excellent tests of docility and initiative. The cat, the raccoon, the monkey, in their attempts to obtain food, learn to pull strings, turn buttons, press latches, slide bolts, pull plugs, step on levers. The dancer does none of these things readily. Are we therefore to infer that it is less intelligent, that it is less docile, than the cat, the raccoon, or the monkey? Not necessarily, for it is possible that these methods do not suit the capacity of the animal. As a matter of fact, all of the tests which are now to be described in their relation to the educability of the dancer bear witness to the importance of the selection of methods in the light of the motor equipment and the habits of the animal which is to be tested. Judged by ordinary standards, on the basis of results which it yields in problem and labyrinth tests, the dancer is extremely stupid. But that this conclusion is not justified is apparent when it is judged in the light of tests which are especially adapted to its peculiarities.
Problems which are easy for other mammals because of their energetic and persistent efforts to secure food in any way which their motor capacity makes possible are useless as tests of the dancer's abilities, because it is not accustomed to obtain its food as the result of strenuous and varied activities. There are problems and problems; a condition or situation which presents a problem to one organism may utterly lack interest for an organism of different structure and behavior. What is a problem test in the case of the cat or even of the common mouse, is not necessarily a problem for the dancer. Similarly, in connection with the labyrinth method, it is clear that the value of the test depends upon the desire of the organism to escape from the maze. The cat, the rat, the tortoise do their best to escape; the dancer is indifferent. Clearly, then, methods of training should be chosen on the basis of a knowledge of the characteristics of the animal whose educability is to be investigated.
The simplest possible test of the intelligence of the dancer which I could devise was the following. Beside the cage in which the mice were kept I placed a wooden box 26 cm. long, 23 cm. wide, and 12 cm. deep. Neither this box nor the cage was covered, for the animals did not attempt to climb out. As a way of passing from one of these boxes to the other I arranged a ladder made of wire fly-screen netting. This ladder was about 8 cm. broad and it extended from the middle of one side of the wooden box upward at an angle of about 30 deg. to the edge of the box and then descended at the same angle into the cage.
A dancer when taken from the nest-box and placed in the wooden box could return to its cage and thus find warmth, food, and company by climbing the ladder. It was my aim to determine, by means of this apparatus, whether the dancers can learn such a simple way of escape and whether they learn by watching one another. As it turned out, a third value belonged to the tests, in that they were used also to test the influence of putting the mice through the act.
In the first experiment three dancers, Nos. 1000, 2, and 6, were together placed in the wooden box. At the end of 15 minutes not one of them had succeeded in returning to the cage. They were then driven to the bottom of the ladder and started upward by the experimenter; with this assistance all escaped to the nest-box. At the expiration of 5 minutes they were again placed in the wooden box, whence the chilly temperature (about 60 deg. F.) and the lack of food made them eager to return to their cage. No attempt to climb up the ladder was made by any of them within 15 minutes, so the experimenter directed them to the ladder and started them upward as in the first test. This completed the experiment for the day. The following day two tests were given in the same way. In the second of these tests, that is, on its fourth trial, No. 1000 climbed over of his own initiative in 5 minutes. The others had to be assisted as formerly. On the third day No. 1000 found his way back to the nest-box quickly and fairly directly, but neither No. 2 or No. 6 climbed of its own initiative in the first test. When their movements were restricted to the region of the box about the base of the ladder, both of them returned to the cage quickly. And on the second test of the third day all the mice climbed the ladder directly.
In Table 35 I have given the time required for escape in the case of 40 tests which were given to these 3 individuals at the rate of 2 tests per day.
When the time exceeded 15 minutes the mice were helped out by the experimenter; a record of 15 minutes, therefore, indicates failure. Naturally enough the motives for escape were not sufficiently strong or constant to bring about the most rapid learning of which the dancer is capable. Sometimes they would remain in the wooden box washing themselves for several minutes before attempting to find a way of escape. On this account I made it a rule to begin the time record with the appearance of active running about. The daily average time of escape as indicated in the table does not decrease regularly and rapidly. On the fourth day, which was the first on which all three of the dancers returned to the cage by way of the ladder of their own initiative in both tests, the average is 214 seconds. In contrast with this, on the twentieth day the time was only 5 seconds. It is quite evident that the dancers had learned to climb the ladder.
At the end of the twentieth day the experiment was discontinued with Nos. 2 and 6, and after two weeks they were given memory tests, which showed that they remembered perfectly the ladder-climbing act, for when placed in the wooden box, with Nos. 4 and 5 as controls, they returned to the cage by way of the ladder immediately and directly.
TABLE 35
LADDER CLIMBING TEST
Time in Minutes and Seconds
No. of Date No. 1000 No. 2 No. 6 Average Daily Av. Exp. 1905 For All For All
1 Nov. 14 15' 15' 15' — — 2 15' 15' 15' — —
3 15 15' 15' 15' — — 4 300" 15' 15' — —
5 16 480" 15' 15' — — 6 180" 300" 420" 300" 300"
7 17 450" 240" 540" 410" 8 20" 15" 18" 18" 214"
9 18 90" 180" 135" 135" 10 135" 105" 165" 135" 135"
11 19 480" 240" 330" 350" 12 30" 120" 90" 80" 143"
13 20 360" 75" 120" 185" 14 5" 6" 8" 6" 95"
15 21 105" 450" 120" 192" 16 8" 80" 20" 54" 123"
17 22 255" 300" 180" 245" 18 10" 30" 270" 103" 174"
19 23 300" 660" 450" 470" 20 90" 120" 150" 120" 295"
21 24 240" 125" 225" 197" 22 4" 6" 168" 59" 128"
23 Nov. 25 305" 85" 130" 173" 24 5" 6" 118" 43" 108"
25 26 3" 8" 44" 18" 26 19" 1" 176" 98" 58"
27 27 150" 79" 269" 166" 28 26" 3" 31" 20" 93"
29 28 214" 18" 267" 166" 30 40" 3" 4" 16" 91"
31 29 130" 45" 250" 142" 32 12" 3" 25" 13" 77"
33 Dec. 2 61" 35" 44" 47" 34 50" 5" 24" 26" 36"
35 3 66" 18" 2" 29" 36 8" 5" 10" 8" 19"
37 4 9" 4" 3" 5" 38 10" 5" 6" 7" 6"
39 5 5" 3" 5" 4" 40 10" 4" 3" 6" 5"
One of the most interesting and important features of the behavior of the dancer in the ladder experiment was a halt at a certain point on the ladder. It occurred just at the edge of the wooden box at the point where the ladder took a horizontal position, and led over into the cage. Every individual from the first test to the last made this halt. Although from the point of view of the experimenter the act was valueless, it may have originated as an attempt to find a way to escape from the uncomfortable position in which the animal found itself on reaching the top of the ladder. Its persistence after a way of escape had been found is an indication of the nature of habit. Day after day the halt became shorter until finally it was little more than a pause and a turn of the head toward one side of the ladder. I think we may say that in this act we have evidence of the persistence of a particular resolution of physiological states which is neither advantageous nor disadvantageous to the organism. Had the act resulted in any gain, it would have become more marked and elaborate; had it resulted in injury or discomfort, it would have disappeared entirely. I have observed the same kind of behavior in the frog and in other animals. What the animal begins to do it persists in unless the act is positively harmful or conflicts with some beneficial activity. The only explanation of certain features of behavior is to be found in the conditions of their original occurrence. They persist by sheer force of conservatism. They have value only in the light of the circumstances under which they first appeared. Although this is merely a fact of habit formation, it suggests that many of the problems which have puzzled students of behavior for ages may be solved by a study of the history of activity.
That there are marked individual differences in intelligence in the dancing mice is apparent from the results of the ladder-climbing experiment. No. 1000 learned to climb quickly, and largely by his own initiative; Nos. 2 and 6, on the contrary, learned only by reason of tuition (being put through the required act by the experimenter). It occurred to me that this experiment, since it was difficult for some individuals and easy for others, might be used to advantage as a test of imitation. If a dancer which knows how to escape to the cage by way of the ladder be placed in the wooden box with one which, despite abundant opportunity, has proved unable to form the habit on his own initiative, will the latter profit by the activity of the former and thus learn the method of escape?
On November 20, Nos. 4 and 5 were placed in the wooden box and left there for half an hour. As they had failed to escape at the end of this interval, they were taken out of the box by the experimenter and returned to the nest-box. November 21 and 22 this test of their ability to learn to climb the ladder was repeated with the same result. On November 23 they were placed in the box with the three mice which had previously been trained to climb the ladder. The latter escaped at once. Apparently the attention of Nos. 4 and 5 was drawn to the ladder by the disappearance of their companions, for they approached its foot and No. 5 climbed up a short distance. Neither succeeded in escaping, however, and they made no further efforts that day. On the 24th, and daily thereafter until the 29th, these two dancers were placed in the box for half an hour, with negative results. At the end of the half hour on the 29th, Nos. 2 and 6 were placed in the box and permitted to go back and forth from one box to the other repeatedly within sight of Nos. 4 and 5. The latter made no attempts to follow them, although at times they seemed to be watching their movements as they ascended the ladder.
To render the results of this test of imitation still more conclusive No. 5 was given further opportunity to learn from No. 1000. Beginning December 2, the following method of experimentation was employed with these two individuals. They were placed in the wooden box together. No. 1000 usually climbed out almost immediately. Sometimes No. 5 apparently saw him disappear up the ladder; sometimes she paid no attention whatever either to the presence or absence of her companion. After he had been in the nest-box for a few seconds, No. 1000 was returned to the wooden box by the experimenter and again permitted to climb out for the benefit of No. 5. This mode of procedure was kept up until No. 1000 had made from three to ten trips. No. 5 was left in the box for half an hour each day. This test was repeated on 18 days within a period of 3 weeks. No. 5 showed no signs of an imitative tendency, and she did not learn to climb the ladder.
To this evidence of a lack of an imitative tendency in the dancer I may here add the results of my observations in other experiments. In the discrimination tests and in the labyrinth tests I purposely so arranged conditions, in certain instances, that one individual should have an opportunity to imitate another. In no case did this occur. Seldom indeed did the animals so much as follow one another with any considerable degree of persistence. They did not profit by one another's acts.
Excellent evidence in support of this conclusion was furnished by the behavior of the mice in the discrimination experiments. Some individuals learned to pull as well as to push the swinging wire doors of the apparatus and were thus enabled to pass through the doorways in either direction; other individuals learned only to pass through in the direction in which the doors could be pushed open. Naturally I was interested to discover whether those which knew only the trick of opening the doors by pushing would learn to pull the doors or would be stimulated to try by seeing other individuals do so. At first I arranged special tests of imitation in the discrimination box; later I observed the influence of the behavior of one mouse upon that of its companion in connection with visual discrimination experiments. This was made possible by the fact that usually a pair of individuals was placed in the discrimination box and the tests given alternately to the male and to the female. Both individuals had the freedom of the nest-box and each frequently saw the other pass through the doorway between the nest-box, A, and the entrance chamber, B (Figure 14), either from A to B by pushing the swing door or from B to A by pulling the door.
Although abundant opportunity for imitation in connection with the opening of the doors in the discrimination box was given to twenty-five individuals, I obtained no evidence of ability to learn by imitation. The dancers did not watch the acts which were performed by their companions, and in most instances they did not attempt to follow a mate from nest-box to entrance chamber.
These problem tests, simple as they are, have revealed two important facts concerning the educability of the dancer. First, that it does not learn by imitation to any considerable extent, and, second, that it is aided by being put through an act. Our general conclusion from the results of the experiments which have been described in this chapter, if any general conclusion is to be drawn thus prematurely, must be that the dancing mouse in its methods of learning differs markedly from other mice and from rats.
CHAPTER XIII
HABIT FORMATION: THE LABYRINTH HABIT
The problem method, of which the ladder and door-opening tests of the preceding chapter are examples, has yielded interesting results concerning the individual initiative, ingenuity, motor ability, and ways of learning of the dancer; but it has not furnished us with accurate measurements of the rapidity of learning or of the permanency of the effects of training. In this chapter I shall therefore present the results of labyrinth experiments which were planned as means of measuring the intelligence of the dancer.
The four labyrinths which have been used in the investigation may be designated as A, B, C, and D. They differ from one another in the character of their errors, as well as in the number of wrong choices of a path which the animal might make on its way from entrance to exit. In the use of the labyrinth method, as in the case of the discrimination method of earlier chapters, the steps by which a satisfactory form of labyrinth for testing the dancer was discovered are quite as interesting and important for those who have an intelligent appreciation of the problems and methods of animal psychology as are the particular results which were obtained. For this reason, I shall describe the various forms of labyrinth in the order in which they were used, whether they proved satisfactory or not. At the outset of this part of my investigation, it was my purpose to compare directly the capacity for habit formation in the dancer with that of the common mouse. This proved impracticable because the same labyrinth is not suited to the motor tendencies of both kinds of mice.
The first of the four labyrinths, A, appears in ground plan in Figure 25. It was constructed of wood, as were the other labyrinths also, and measured 60 cm. in length and width, and 10 cm. in depth. The outside alleys were 5 cm. wide. In the figure, I marks the starting point or entrance to the maze, and O the exit through which the mouse was permitted to pass into its nest-box. Any turn in the wrong direction which the animal made in its progress from entrance to exit was recorded as an error. The four errors, exclusive of the mistake of turning back, which were possible in this labyrinth, are indicated in the figure by the numerals 1, 2, 3, and 4. By retracing its steps a mouse might repeat any one or all of these errors, and add to them the error of turning back.
In the experiments a mouse was permitted to enter the maze from a small box which had been placed by the experimenter at I, and an accurate record was kept of the number of errors which it made in finding its way from entrance to exit, and of the time occupied. Each of five dancers was given 31 tests in this labyrinth. The number of tests per day varied, as is indicated in Table 36, from 1 to 4. The results of the tests, so far as errors and times are in question, appear in the table. T at the head of a column is an abbreviation for time, E for errors.
The dancers did not learn to escape from this labyrinth easily and quickly. In fact, the average time of the thirty-first test (198") is considerably longer than that of the first (130"). The number of errors decreased, it is true, but even for the last test it was 6.6 as compared with only a little more than twice that number for the first test. The last column of the table furnishes convincing proof of the truth of the statement that the animals did not acquire a perfect labyrinth-A habit. Was this due to inability to learn so complex a path, or to the fact that the method is not adapted to their nature? Observation of the behavior of the mice in the experiments enables me to say with certainty that there was no motive for escape sufficiently strong to establish a habit of following the direct path. Often, especially after a few experiences in the maze, a dancer would wander back and forth in the alleys and central courts, dancing much of the time and apparently exploring its surroundings instead of persistently trying to escape. This behavior, and the time and error results of the accompanying table, lead me to conclude that the labyrinth method, as it has been employed in the study of the intelligence of several other mammals, is not a satisfactory test of the ability of the dancer to profit by experience. That the fault is not in the labyrinth itself is proved by the results which I obtained with common mice.
TABLE 36
RESULTS OF LABYRINTH A TESTS WITH DANCERS
AVERAGE TEST DATE No. 1000 No. 2 No. 6 No. 4 No. 5 FOR ALL 1905 T E T E T E T E T E T E
1 Nov 23 130" 14 100" 8 170" 13 60" 6 190" 26 130" 13.4 2 24 140 19 78 7 60 8 149 6 211 25 128 13.0 3 25 392 31 87 1 98 5 185 13 120 9 176 11.8 4 26 448 38 38 3 47 2 50 3 121 12 141 11.3 5 27 142 8 21 2 27 3 27 2 17 1 47 3.2 6 28 45 2 61 7 63 5 102 8 33 4 61 5.2 7 29 303 17 64 7 36 3 42 2 57 4 100 6.6 8 30 222 15 26 2 37 5 42 3 7 0 67 5.0 9 Dec 1 185 9 36 5 48 3 63 3 94 8 85 5.6 10 2 52 2 71 4 19 0 196 5 95 11 87 4.4 11 3 180 8 32 2 107 4 52 3 38 4 82 4.2 12 4 310 10 133 11 65 3 242 6 125 6 175 7.2 13 4 153 9 335 55 130 10 195 15 154 18 193 21.4 14 5 330 7 69 2 42 2 201 6 130 10 154 5.4 15 5 287 7 34 4 61 4 136 7 25 2 109 4.8 16 5 455 15 65 4 25 0 110 8 160 15 183 8.4 17 6 120 15 280 9 33 0 168 4 39 2 128 6.0 18 6 120 4 164 10 81 4 101 5 85 4 110 5.4 19 6 132 12 78 7 110 6 40 2 151 12 102 7.8 20 7 258 10 223 16 33 1 92 5 37 1 129 6.6 21 7 110 7 23 3 44 4 20 4 305 23 100 8.2 22 7 100 4 60 8 167 15 44 7 58 4 86 7.6 23 8 43 1 179 7 356 6 34 3 65 3 135 4.0 24 8 92 5 56 5 42 3 17 1 23 1 46 3.0 25 9 85 5 114 3 62 3 129 8 31 0 84 3.8 26 9 30 2 36 4 109 15 12 1 34 2 44 4.8 27 9 69 5 40 4 85 6 36 3 16 1 49 3.8 28 10 169 7 80 3 28 0 142 5 35 2 89 3.4 29 10 155 5 266 8 91 5 27 0 37 2 115 4.0 30 10 29 1 25 2 124 14 83 6 111 12 74 7.0 31 10 465 6 208 8 95 3 65 3 159 13 198 6.6
On the basis of two tests per day, two common mice, a white one and a gray one, quickly learned to escape from labyrinth A by the shortest path. The time of escape for the gray individual (Table 37) decreased from 180" in the first test to 21" in the tenth, and the number of errors from 6 to 1. Similarly in the case of the white individual, the time decreased from 122" to 8", and the errors from 5 to 1. A fraction of the number of tests to which the dancer had been subjected sufficed to establish a habit of escape in the common mouse. It is evident, therefore, that the dancer differs radically from the common mouse in its behavior in a maze, and it is also clear that the labyrinth method, if it is to be used to advantage, must be adapted to the motor tendencies of the animal which is to be tested.
TABLE 37
RESULTS OF LABYRINTH A TESTS WITH COMMON MICE
GREY MOUSE WHITE MOUSE TEST T E T E
1 180" 6 122" 5 2 26 2 80 6 3 37 1 56 4 4 18 0 27 1 5 68 2 33 2 6 10 1 19 1 7 11 1 17 1 8 13 1 17 1 9 10 0 8 1 10 21 1 8 1
The behavior of the dancer made obvious two defects in labyrinth A. Its passages are so large that the mouse is constantly tempted to dance, and it lacks the basis for a strong and constant motive of escape by the direct path. To obviate these shortcomings labyrinth B was constructed, as is shown in Figures 23 and 24, with very narrow passages, and a floor which was covered with the wires of an interrupted electric circuit so that errors might be punished. The length of this labyrinth was 52 cm. and the passages were 2.5 cm. wide and 10 cm. deep. Dancing in these narrow alleys was practically impossible, for the mice could barely turn around in them. In the case of all except the common mice and two dancers, a depth of 10 cm. was sufficient to keep the animals in the maze without the use of a cover.
As an account of the behavior of the dancer in labyrinth B has already been given in Chapter XI, I may now state the general results of the experiments. In all, thirty individuals were trained in this labyrinth. Each individual was given tests at the rate of one per minute until it had succeeded in following the correct path five times in succession. The weak electric shock, which was given as a punishment for mistakes, provided an activity-impelling motive for escape to the nest-box.
An idea of the extreme individual difference in the rapidity with which the labyrinth-B path was learned by these dancers may be obtained by an examination of Table 38, from which it appears that the smallest number of training tests necessary for a successful or errorless trip through the maze was one and the largest number fourteen. It is to be remembered that each mouse was given an opportunity to pass through the labyrinth once without punishment for errors, and thus to discover, before the training tests were begun, that a way of escape existed. This first test we may designate as the preliminary trial. Table 38 further indicates that the females acquired the labyrinth habit more quickly than did the males.
TABLE 38
RESULTS OF LABYRINTH-B EXPERIMENTS, WITH TWENTY DANCERS
MALES FEMALES
NO. OF NO. OF FIRST NO. OF LAST OF NO. OF NO. OF FIRST NO. OF LAST OF MOUSE CORRECT FIVE CORRECT MOUSE CORRECT FIVE CORRECT TEST TESTS TEST TESTS
76 8 14 75 4 15 78 5 20 77 7 11 86 13 22 87 12 22 58 2 14 49 1 5 50 6 23 57 3 20 60 13 37 59 14 28 410 6 20 415 4 13 220 4 8 225 6 18 212 3 7 211 6 10 214 10 28 213 5 14
AV. 7.0 19.3 AV. 6.2 15.6
A graphic representation of certain of the important features of the process of formation of the labyrinth-B habit is furnished by Figure 26 in which the solid line is the curve of learning for the ten males of Table 38, and the broken line for the ten females. These two curves were plotted from the number of errors made in the preliminary trial (P in the figure) and in each of the subsequent tests up to the sixteenth. In the case of both the males and the females, for example, the average number of errors in the preliminary trial was 11.3, as is indicated by the fact that the curves start at a point whose value is given in the left margin as 11.3. In the second training test the number of errors fell to 3.3 for the males and 2.7 for the females. The number of the test is to be found on the base line; the number of errors in the left margin. If these two curves of learning were carried to their completion, that for the males would end with the thirty-seventh test, and that for the females with the twenty- eighth.
; Females ——[broken line].]
Time records are not reported for these and subsequent labyrinth tests because they proved to be almost valueless as measures of the rapidity of habit formation. At any point in its progress through a labyrinth, the dancer may suddenly stop to wash its face, look about or otherwise examine its surroundings; if a shock be given to hurry it along it may be surprised into an error. It is my experience, and this is true of other animals as well as of the dancing mouse, that a long trip, as measured in time units, does not necessarily indicate the lack of ability to follow the labyrinth path correctly and rapidly. Hence, whenever it is possible (and the experimenter can always plan his tests so that it shall be possible), the number of errors should be given first importance and the time of the test second place. I have presented in Table 38 the number of the first correct test, and the number of the last of five successive correct tests. Space cannot be spared for records of the errors made in the several tests by each individual. |
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