234 The Dancing Mouse 



twenty tests daily. The form of the curve serves to call at- 

 tention to the importance of uniform conditions of training, 

 in case the results are to be used as accurate measures of 

 the rapidity of learning. 



Examination of the detailed results of the white-black 

 discrimination tests as they appear in the tables of Chapter 

 VII will reveal the fact that some individuals succeeded in 

 choosing correctly in a series of ten tests after not more than 

 five series, whereas others required at least twice as many 

 tests as the basis of a perfect series. In very few instances, 

 however, was a perfect habit of discrimination established 

 by fewer than one hundred tests. As the averages just pre- 

 sented in Table 41 indicate, fifteen series, or one hundred and 

 fifty tests, were required for the completion of the experiment. 

 One might search a long time, possibly, for another mammal 

 whose curve of error in a simple discrimination test would 

 fall as gradually as that of the dancer. It is fair to say that 

 this animal learns very slowly as compared with most mam- 

 mals which have been carefully studied. It is to be remem- 

 bered, however, that quantitative results such as are here 

 presented for the dancer are available for few if any other 

 animals except the white rat. Neither in the form of the 

 curve of learning nor in the behavior of the animal as it makes 

 its choice of an electric-box is there evidence of anything 

 which might be described as a sudden understanding of the 

 situation. The dancer apparently learns by rote. It ex- 

 hibits neither intelligent insight into an experimental situa- 

 tion nor ability to profit by the experience of its companions. 

 That the selection of the white box occurs in various ways 

 in different individuals, and even in the same individual at 

 different periods in the training process, is the only indica- 

 tion of anything suggestive of implicit reasoning. Naturally 

 enough comparison of the two boxes is the first method of 



