NOTES 



MEASURED ELECTRICAL STIMULI IN THE 

 STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 



ROBERT M. YERKES 



The Martin method of measuring induction shocks has now 

 been perfected to a point which renders it available for students 

 of animal behavior and it seems wholly desirable that all who 

 are engaged in this field of research should familiarize themselves 

 with Dr. Martin's recently published book on this subject ' 



As the author remarks in his introduction, 'There are few 

 physiological researches which do not involve artificial stimula- 

 tion of tissues; and for the production of stimuli induction 

 shocks are in most cases the first choice. They are easier to 

 use and they subject the stimulated tissue to less permanent 

 modification than do other forms of artificial stimulus. Induc- 

 tion shocks are, however, very variable in intensity; and as 

 commonly used there is no means of knowing or of stating their 

 physiological effectiveness in other than the most general terms. 

 An induction shock is weak, medium, or strong. More closely 

 than that the user does not attempt to describe it. 



'This lack of knowledge as to the strengths of the stimuli 

 employed is often a serious handicap in the prosecution of 

 individual researches, particularly such as call for the use of 

 stimuli of varying strengths. It also operates to make uncer- 

 tain the attempts of investigators to duplicate the experiments 

 of others. 



"No one will question the desirability of being able to measure 

 faradic stimuli, both for the sake of controlling the stimuli used 

 in one's own experiments, and also in order that these stimuli 

 may be so described as to enable other workers to duplicate 

 them as occasion arises. 



'The purpose of this work is to outline a system for calibrat- 

 ing the apparatus used in generating induction shocks, so that 



1 Martin, Ernest G. The Measurement of Induction Shocks ; A Manual for the 

 Quantitative Use of Faradic Stimuli. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1912, pp. 

 vii + 117. 



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