208 The Dancing Mouse 



siderable degree of persistence. They did not profit by one 

 another's acts. 



Excellent evidence in support of this conclusion was fur- 

 nished 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 direc- 

 tion; other individuals learned only to pass through in the 

 direction hi which the doors could be pushed open. Natu- 

 rally 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 in- 

 fluence of the behavior of one mouse upon that of its com- 

 panion in connection with visual discrimination experiments. 

 This was made possible by the fact that usually a pair of in- 

 dividuals was placed in the discrimination box and the tests 

 given alternately to the male and to the female. Both indi- 

 viduals 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. 



