FUNCTION OF VIBRISSAE IN BEHAVIOR OF WHITE RAT 37 



Behavior: — The behavior of the first three rats was different 

 from any of the others put on. They were sluggish, had to be 

 driven to their work by blows. When put upon the maze they 

 flattened themselves out, clung sometimes by all four feet to 

 the edges of the walk and refused to budge. It required several 

 sharp raps with a long pencil to start them off and then they 

 went most unwillingly. Hunger was an unavailing stimulus in 

 this situation. After crawling along a little way they settled 

 dow^n again. If the delay proved unbearable another blow with 

 a pencil might be necessary or any sharp noise or jar often 

 startled them into going a bit further. This reluctant hesitancy 

 continued with some to the very last. The slips and falls in the 

 first twenty-five trials were not more than those of some other 

 groups but the number did not lessen greatly in the succeeding 

 trials. The errors were excessive with a fairly constant ratio. 

 It seemed impossible for these rats to find the turns at B and J 

 and it w^as only . by feeling with feet and nose around these 

 angles that they succeeded in taking th.ese paths. Suppose the 

 body, as we have often seen it in the blind rats especially, were 

 set for a left turn after leaving A, but for safety the middle of 

 the path, or for guidance the right edge of the path, was followed : 

 then the turn would be made at C which was wrong. Now if 

 rightness and leftness is the criterion of a turn when the animal 

 comes out of this cul de sac and reaches B, the turn has become 

 a right turn instead of a left turn. So far as any one could see 

 the only hope of these rats in making this turn lay in their feet 

 hitting the angle at B in some way as they ran down from A, 

 but it seemed very easy to step over and miss. The only way 

 to get it was to run along the left edge in the beginning and that 

 meant many slips and falls. 



The direction of the turn seems a much easier thing to compass 

 than the position or place of the turn. It was striking to see the 

 helplessness of these animals on this maze, the lack of tonicity, 

 the slow crawling movement, the quivering flattened body. 



Why did they find this problem so difficult to learn ? The first 

 reason has already been given: the inability to get the position 

 of the turn and thus making it too early or too late. In other 

 mazes with sides there are usually corners or projecting partitions 

 which mark such turning points. Even man finds it difficult to 

 carry distance in other than visual terms. One estimates dis- 



