THE FORMATION OF HABITS AT HIGH SPEED 



177 



The results from the young animals are not especially conclu- 

 sive. Taking the records as they stand, however, it may be said 

 that two out of the three seemed to show the effects of their expe- 

 riences twenty-four hours afterward, and one of the animals, after 

 twelve days, very quickly recovered and in the end actually bet- 

 tered its previous best record. It is to be expected, of course, 

 that individuals vary greatly in the length of time which their 

 habits, whether formed slowly or rapidly, endure; and further- 

 more, there is no way in which one can be reasonably certain, 

 except by the method of multiple instances, whether, in the long 

 run, animals without previous experience might not, on the whole, 

 make as good records as those made by experienced individuals. 

 As far as the group as a whole is concerned, it does not seem to 

 bear markedly one way or the other on this particular question, 

 although it does show that the final records of animals b and c 

 were better than their initial ones. 



Considering the adults, not as individuals, but as a group, and 

 comparing the averages of the four series, we get the results as 

 tabulated. Individual differences notwithstanding, we may say 

 that, on the whole, the second set of trials, five days after the first, 

 was distinctly slower; the third, two days after the second, 

 not as slow as the preceding, whereas the fourth, six days after 

 the third, was the best of all. Of course, these statements have no 

 bearing on specific cases. The record as given is sufficiently de- 

 tailed to show how the relative fixity in one individual is balanced, 

 and even discounted by the relative instability of another, or 

 vice versa. 



