JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 



Vol. 5 MAY-JUNE 1915 No. 3 



THE WHITE RAT AND THE MAZE PROBLEM: 

 III. THE INTRODUCTION OF A TACTUAL CONTROL 



STELLA B. VINCENT 



Chicago Normal College 



In two papers, appearing in preceding numbers of this Jour- 

 nal, I have attempted to show that vision and olfaction can 

 be introduced as controls into the maze problem and to demon- 

 strate some of the effects of such an introduction upon the 

 learning process of the white rat. In this article I wish to re- 

 view, briefly, in the light of the previous discussions, some 

 work on the maze problem where the conditions for tactual 

 and cutaneous control were emphasized and to add some experi- 

 mentation not previously reported. For the full details of the 

 earlier work see my monograph, : The Function of the Vibris- 

 sae in the Behavior of the White Rat." 1 



While this paper, the third of a series, attempts to show 

 how tactual elements enter into and modify the maze reactions, 

 it must be understood that the sensory experience is always a 

 complex. Yerkes has sounded the warning clearly when he 

 says: "An animal responds to a situation, not to any one inde- 

 pendent and isolated stimulus. Every situation, to be sure, 

 may be analyzed into its component simple stimuli, but the 

 influence of each is conditioned by the situation." 2 The diffi- 

 culty of isolating the tactual element is the chief reason why 

 there has been so little work done with it in studies of labyrinth 



1 Vincent, S. B. The Function of the Vibrissae in the Behavior of the White 

 Rat. Behavior Mon., vol. 1, no. 5. 



2 Yerkes, R. M. Relations of Stimuli in the Frog. Harvard Studies, vol. 2, 

 p. 546. 



