THE FORMATION OF HABITS AT HIGH SPEED 1 



OTTO C. GLASER 



From the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Michigan 



WITH TWO FIGURES 



CONTENTS 



1 . Introduction 165 



2. Methods 166 



3. Genera! results 167 



4. Specific results 171 



5. The senses and the habit 179 



6. The kinsesthetic chain 182 



7. Summary and conclusion 183 



8. Bibliography 184 



INTRODUCTION 



The method by which habits are ordinarily educed consists 

 essentially in presenting a problem whose solution depends on the 

 slow, and often painful suppression of irrelevant actions, and 

 the survival of only those that count. The results so achieved are 

 invaluable, but from the nature of the case difficult to verify. 

 So much time is required that students of all classes are apt to 

 be told in words, rather than by actual experiments, what has 

 been accomplished in this interesting field. Habits formed slowly 

 and gradually are not only incapable of quick demonstration, but 

 the "slow method" leaves altogether untouched, a wide range of 

 behavior. Animals do not always act slowly; they do not always 

 overcome, with deliberation and care, the difficulties that block 



1 Directly, as well as indirectly, I am indebted to Miss Frances J. Dunbar, and 

 to Miss Nina Gage, for many of the results on which the present communication 

 is based. 



THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY, VOL. 20, NO. 3. 



