242 Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



saying, "This one case outweighs all your averages. Do you not 

 see that the animal was hindered rather than helped in learning 

 by being put through ?" The answer is, of course, why should 

 not his eighteen consecutive successes, unaided after the first six 

 trials, have stamped in the reaction ? Each morning he failed 

 once more (he almost always failed on loop i, a fastening he 

 had already learned). He failed, also, no matter how long I 

 waited for him. But he never failed immediately after he had been 

 put through, and each of his successes following the putting through 

 was quick. The fact is the box was very complex for him, he 

 would forget a fastening, be put through, then not fail again that 

 day. The next day the difficulty would reappear. He was very 

 slow to learn this box, but remembered it longer than did any of 

 the others. The point I would emphasize is simply that putting 

 through after a failure certainly and always resulted in making 

 the next trial a success. It seemed, as w^e say of human beings, to 

 refresh his memory. Would he have failed as frequently and 

 during so many days had he been forced to learn by trial and error, 

 not obtaining food at all until he succeeded, be it a day or a 

 week .^ I think he would not have failed as frequently after the 

 first success. No doubt the putting through caused him to depend 

 upon it. I do not believe that putting through has nearly so 

 much stamping-in powder as a self-innervated movement. It has 

 not for man. A man may be told how to make a shot at billiards 

 but only practice in making the shot will fix it. A player having 

 made the shot once, as directed, may at that time succeed. In 

 later trials he will make it sometimes very awkwardly. So with 

 our animals. Often the first success does not require the longest 

 time either for those put through or for those which innervate 

 their own muscles. These short first times and longer later ones 

 are sufficiently frequent to show a marked difference between the 

 learning of dogs and cats and that of raccoons. I think, finally, 

 that putting through helps a raccoon to succeed in trials imme- 

 diately following the experience of being put through, and that 

 this is a mental effect. It establishes a transient association. 

 Trial and error forms more stable and permanent associations — a 

 reflex affair simply. 



The description of No. 3's learning in Box 11 should make it 

 clear that the averages in that box deserve but little weight. They 

 differ by only ten seconds. But, however that table be counted, 



