II 



OBSERVATIONAL PROBLEMS AND METHODS 



My chief observational task in Montecito was the study of 

 ideational behavior, or of such adaptive behavior in monkeys 

 and apes as corresponds to the ideational behavior of man. It 

 was my plan to determine, so far as possible in the time at my 

 disposal, the existence or absence of ideas and the role which 

 they play in the solution of problems by monkeys and apes. 

 I had in mind the behavioristic form of the perennial questions : 

 Do these animals think, do they reason, and if so, what is the 

 nature of these processes as indicated by the characteristics of 

 their adaptive behavior? 



My work, although obviously preliminary and incomplete, 

 differs from most of the previous studies of the complex behavior 

 of the infrahuman primates in that I relied chiefly upon a spe- 

 cially devised method and applied it systematically over a 

 period of several months. The work was intensive and quantita- 

 tive instead of more or less incidental, casual, and qualitative as 

 has usually been the case. Naturally, during the course of my 

 special study of ideational behavior observations were made 

 relative to various other aspects of the life of my subjects. Such, 

 for example, are my notes on the use of the hands, the instincts, 

 the emotions, and the natural aptitudes of individuals. It is, 

 indeed, impossible to observe any of the primates without noting 

 most interesting and illuminating activities. And although the 

 major portion of my time was spent in hard and monotonous 

 work with my experimental apparatus, I found time each day 

 to get into intimate touch with the free activities of my subjects 

 and to observe their social relations and varied expressions of 

 individuality. As a result of my close acquaintance with this 

 band of primates, I feel more keenly than ever before the neces- 

 sity of taking into account, in connection with all experimental 

 analyses of behavior, the temperamental characteristics, experi- 

 ence, and affective peculiarities of individuals. 



