PROBLEM 3. Behavior m (Umiplex A 



and error. You would find an easier way 

 of getting out of a puzzle box. You 

 would begin by looking about you. You 

 would know, without trying, that the 

 slats are too close together to permit you 

 to squeeze through. In the meantime you 

 would be receiving many stimuli. On 

 one side of the box you would see a door. 

 You now see a lever on the door. You 

 would, therefore, try the lever and free 

 yourself. You might have to try the 

 lever several times before it worked 

 (trial and error), but through observa- 

 tion and reasoning you would figure out 

 how to release yourself. 



Experience needed for reasoning. If 

 you have done something or observed 

 something and stored it up in your mem- 

 ory you have had a certain experience. 

 The more you do and observe and store 

 up the more experiences you will have 

 had. You have learned the size of the 

 space needed for your body to pass 

 through. You have seen doors before and 

 you have stored up memories of doors, 

 their appearance, and their use. You 

 have had experiences with levers before 

 and you remembered them. It is obvious 

 that the more experiences you have had 

 and the better you can store up these ex- 

 periences the more readily you can solve, 

 by reasoning, any problem you meet. 



Reasoning in other animals. To some 

 extent the cat and other mammals, too, 

 store up memories and draw on these at 

 some future time. Have you seen evi- 

 dences of this? They may solve simple 

 problems in ways other than by trial and 

 error. Apes certainly do so, as the follow- 

 ing experiment demonstrates. A particu- 

 larly intelligent chimpanzee was used for 

 the experiment. Two bamboo rods of 



iiiniah 



295 



Fig. 276 What reasoning has gone into this si?n- 

 ple activity? (38TH annual rp:port, supt. of 



SCHOOLS, NEW YORK CITy) 



different thicknesses, so that one could 

 be fitted into the other, were placed in 

 the chimp's cage. A banana was laid out- 

 side of the cage at such a distance that it 

 could not be reached with either rod. 

 The animal began by reaching for the 

 fruit with the longer stick. After several 

 unsuccessful attempts he gave up. Later 

 while playing with the two rods in the 

 back of the cage he accidentally fitted 

 the smaller into the larger. At once he 

 jumped up, went to the front of the cage 

 and reached for the fruit with the jointed 

 stick he had just made. The sticks acci- 

 dentally fell apart so he again fitted one 

 within the other. This time he secured 

 the banana. Once having fashioned his 

 new tool (accidentally, the first time), 

 he associated the tool with the banana 

 which he had tried to reach some time 

 before. He immediately recognized the 

 use to which he could put the jointed 

 stick. Because of his ability to make this 

 association, he solved his problem of get- 

 ting the banana. 



