Educability : Methods of Learning 205 



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 dis- 

 continued 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. 



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 indi- 

 vidual 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 indica- 

 tion 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 discom- 

 fort, 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 



