218 The Dancing Mouse 



tance 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. 



In general, labyrinth B proved very satisfactory as a means 

 of testing the ability of the dancer to learn a simple path. 

 The narrow passages effectively prevented dancing, and the 

 introduction of the electric shock as a punishment for mistakes 

 developed a motive for escape which was uniform, constant, 

 and so strong that the animals clearly did their best to escape 

 from the labyrinth quickly and without errors. This maze 

 was so simple that it did not tend to discourage them as did 

 the one which is next to be described. It must be admitted, 

 however, that, though labyrinth B is perfectly satisfactory 

 as a test of the dancer's ability to learn to follow a simple path, 

 it is not an ideal means of measuring the rapidity of habit 

 formation. This is due to the fact that the preliminary trial 

 and the first training test play extremely different roles in 

 the case of different individuals. A dancer which happens to 

 follow the correct path from entrance to exit in the prelim- 

 inary trial may continue to do so, with only an occasional 

 error, during several of the early training tests, and it may 

 therefore fail for a considerable time to discover that there are 

 errors which should be avoided. The learning process is 

 delayed by its accidental success. On the other hand, an 

 individual which happens to make many mistakes to begin 

 with immediately attempts to avoid the points in the maze 

 at which it receives the electric shock. I was led to conclude, 

 as a result of the labyrinth-B experiments, that the path was 

 too easy, and that a more complex labyrinth would, in all 

 probability, furnish a more satisfactory means of measuring 

 the rapidity of habit formation. 



