THE DELAYED REACTION IN CATS 



109 



of the three boxes before the solution is reached. This type of 

 error was made 13 times by Bess. This form of behavior is 

 apparently less frequent than in Hunter's child 1 and far less 

 frequent than in Hamilton's dog. 4 



TABLE XI 



Two Box Experiments* Total 



reactions 



Order of response abc ac bac ba made 



Jim 14 14 



Bess 6 14 20 



Order of response bca be cba ca 



Jim 15 15 



Bess 6 6 



* Since exit b is no longer open, all orders of choice ending in b are omitted in 

 this table. 



Table XI contains a record of the errors made in the two 

 box experiments. Jim had so completely lost the cue to b that 

 not one time after that box was dropped out did he return to 

 it. Although Bess never made b her first choice again, she 

 at six different times on her way from a over to c stopped by and 

 examined b. It will be noticed that the number of errors greatly 

 decreased with the elimination of the middle box. This may be 

 accounted for, first, by the increase in the simplicity of the 

 problem and, second, by practice. 



It would be well worth while to put beside the reaction ten- 

 dencies of these two cats similar data gathered by Hunter on 

 rats, raccoons, dogs, and children. Table XII gives a sum- 

 mary of the errors made by his subjects, and includes, also,, 

 those for my two cats. Some explanation of this table is 



necessary. 



TABLE XII 



Total Three Persis- Per Per 



Number number place tent cent cent 



of of errors errors errors of of 



Animal trials A B C AtoBBtoC 



Child 264 120 54 6 44 11 



Raccoon— Bob 720 209 78 29 32 37 



Dog— Blackie 570 127 75 25 59 33 



Rat— No. 9 575 144 42 13 29 30 



No. 2 345 152 69 47 45 68 



Cat— Jim 320 75 25 3 33 12 



Bess 330 68 13 1 19 7 



3 Hunter, W. S. The delayed reaction in a child. Psych. Rev., 1917, vol. 24, 74-87. 



4 Hamilton, G. V. T. An experimental study of an unusual type of reaction in 

 a dog. Jour. Comp. Neitr. Psy., 1907, 17, 329-341. 



