METHODS OF EXHIBITING REACTIVE TENDENCIES 25 



therefore be used, the fact that they are to be reacted to being 

 indicated by their openness, the entrance doors being raised in 

 case of each trial. Since the entrance doors of all other boxes 

 should remain closed and locked, there would be no persistent 

 tendency on the part of most organisms to attempt to enter 

 other than the four boxes referred to. For some purposes, it 

 may prove even more satisfactory to use boxes 2, 5, 8 and 11. 



Incorrect choices would not be rewarded, and as seemed desir- 

 able the subject could be punished for such choices by being 

 confined in the boxes for a stated period. A correct choice, no 

 matter what the particular form of the problem, would naturally 

 be rewarded by the presentation of food in the food cup. 



Various problems, in addition to that originally suggested by 

 Hamilton, may be presented by this method. The following 

 will suggest the range of possibilities: (1) An insoluble prob- 

 lem, such as Hamilton used, the several boxes serving as cor- 

 rect boxes in irregular order, but the same one never twice in 

 succession and each the same number of times in every hundred 

 trials (this problem is practically insoluble by even the most 

 intelligent organism) ; (2) the systematic use, as correct box, 

 of each in turn from the left end to the right end, that is, 5, 6, 

 7, 8, or in case of the other group of boxes, 2, 5, 8, 11, this suc- 

 cession being repeated indefinitely; (3) box at left end, box at 

 right end, box next to left end, box next to right end, the same 

 being repeated indefinitely. From these suggestions, it is evi- 

 dent that various degrees of complexity of order and relation- 

 ship might be utilized to elicit reactive tendencies and to dis- 

 play problem solving ability of different sorts. 



The apparatus demands no special modification or adaptation 

 for use in connection with the Hamilton method. Further details 

 are unnecessary in view of the fact that Hamilton has already 

 published a fairly complete description of method and apparatus, 6 

 and has in press a still more elaborate account of procedure 

 and results. 7 



Hunter Method 



For the method of delayed reaction the apparatus demands 

 certain special appliances which, however, do not have to be 

 removed when either the Hamilton or the Yerkes method is 



6 Hamilton, G. V. A studv of trial and error reactions in mammals. Journal 

 of Animal Behavior, 1911, 1, pp. 33-66. 



7 Behavior Monographs, 1917, 3, no. 13. 



