THE QUESTION OF FORM PERCEPTION 



331 



Watson 4 ), the animal tested is confronted not by two ''forms" 

 corresponding to the configurations of the opal glass, but by- 

 such designs as are suggested in figure i. The squares drawn 

 in the figure represent the rectangular tunnels down which the 

 animal goes in making his responses. What the animal sees 

 is a triangle or a circle 5 each in more or less of a square setting. 

 Now I put this question : If an animal is trained on diagrams 

 i and 2, is it any wonder that he breaks down when confronted 



Figure 1. The stimuli which confront the subject in standard tests for form 

 discrimination. 



by diagrams 2 and 3? The problem would be puzzling to a 

 human adult, unless he had been told to attend to triangularity! 

 Furthermore if the animal is trained to discriminate diagrams 

 4 and 5, it does not follow that the responses are based upon 

 the lines per se and not upon the whole pattern. 



Apropos of this, I suggest the following: In experiments 

 upon visual "form" perception, controls should be made in 

 which the shape of the tunnels are varied. A discrimination 

 could be set up, e.g., between two forms when presented at 

 the ends of square tunnels. After controls have been used for 

 intensity, position, etc., substitute triangular tunnels and then 

 circular tunnels. Figure 2 shows the resulting designs which 

 will confront the animals. Under these conditions, it should be 

 possible to demonstrate experimentally whether the subject was 

 reacting to the "forms" or to the entire "patterns." 



4 Yerkes, Robt. M. and Watson, Jno. B. Methods of studying vision in animals. 

 Behavior Monographs, 1911, vol. 1, no. 2. 



6 1 do not assume the perception of form by this phrasing. The wording is 

 from the anthropomorphic standpoint for brevity's sake. 



