14 STELLA BURNHAM VINCENT 



Dr. Watson's results are largely given in terms of time. Now 

 kinaesthetic control may perhaps quite fairly be thus measured 

 since these motor attitudes are so closely linked with the physio- 

 logical mechanism of the body as to be almost machine-like.*^ 

 Hence control involving such sensations may be more nearly 

 expressed in terms of time than any other sensory control. But 

 when the action depends for the greater part on other sensory 

 cues, especially those of the distance senses, then certainly the 

 process cannot be fairly measured in terms of time and must 

 take more account of the number and kind of errors. 



This is in no sense intended as a criticism of Dr. Watson's 

 conclusions but only to show how his work might be supple- 

 mented. The particular part of this investigation bearing on 

 the maze was begun under him and he has seen the other experi- 

 mentation in its later stages. 



D. Apparatus 



It was determined to build a maze which it was hoped would 

 throw the cutaneous, tactual situation into relief and especially 

 give some light upon the use of vibrissae in the acquirement of 

 a labyrinth coordination where the loss of these members might 

 be felt. Evidently the walls of the labyrinth were the source of 

 most of the contact experiences of the vibrissae and the walls 

 were the thing to take away. 



A maze was made with elevated runways, unconfined by walls 

 but separated by spaces wide enough to preclude jumping. 

 From previous experiences, both of our own and others, with 

 the animals, it was believed that they could not learn the problem 

 by sight because vision was so poor: at least conditions which 

 permitted the use of vision w^ould not lessen the difficulties 

 greatly. It was also thought best to make the problem a fairly 

 simple one. 



The maze as constructed is shown in Fig. 14, Plate I. It was 

 made 54"x54", with runways 4" in width separated by 6" spaces. 

 It was made of \" stuff and the runways were elevated by 

 strips which ran lengthwise and vertical to them beneath. 

 These strips were stayed below by a few cross pieces and the 

 whole mounted on a frame on castors w^hich raised it about 



"Washburn, M. F.: The Physiological Basis of Relational Processes, Psychol. 

 Bull. 1909, vol. 6, p. 3G9. 



