258 The Dancing Mouse 



at the end of 130 tests discrimination was perfect. All this 

 appears in the curve of learning (solid line of figure). On 

 the other hand, these preliminary series when repeated as 

 memory tests, after a rest-interval of eight weeks, gave mark- 

 edly different results. Series A indicated preference for 

 white (5.6 times in 10) instead of black, and series B indicated 

 only a slight preference for black. In brief, series A and B 

 show that the preference for black was considerably stronger 

 at the beginning of the training than at the beginning of the 

 re-training. 



In the light of these facts it is fair to claim that the effects 

 of the white-black training had not wholly disappeared as 

 the result of eight weeks of rest, and that the experiment 

 therefore fails to furnish satisfactory grounds for the state- 

 ment that re-learning occurs more rapidly than learning. 

 I accept this criticism as pertinent, although not necessarily 

 valid, and at the same time I freely admit that the results 

 have a significance which I had not anticipated. But they 

 are not less interesting or valuable on that account. Grant- 

 ing, then, that at least some of the ten individuals which took 

 part in the experiment had not completely lost the memory 

 of their white-black training at the end of eight weeks, it is 

 still possible that an examination of the individual results 

 may justify some conclusion concerning the question which 

 was proposed at the outset of the investigation. Such an 

 examination is made possible by Tables 49 and 50, in which 

 I have arranged separately the results for the males and the 

 females. 



Only three of the ten individuals failed to re-acquire the 

 habit of white-black discrimination more quickly than it 

 had originally been acquired, and, in the case of these excep- 

 tions, No. 220 required exactly the same number of tests in 

 each case, and No. 420 was placed at a slight disadvantage 



