VISION IN THE MOUSE 593 



a shock, and color sequences, in which the animal goes to the color 

 where it received food in the preceding trial and avoids the one 

 where it received the shock. The turnings to left or right were 

 recorded in all the experiments, and in the case of mouse Q, in 

 100 choices we have the following results: 



Position sequences 69 



Color sequences 53 



Position sequences in opposition to color 26 



Color sequences in opposition to position 10 



We interpret the behavior of the animal thus: it enters the com- 

 partment where a choice is necessary. Its attention may be on the 

 idea of the food which it expects to receive or upon the pain of the 

 electric shock or anything else you please — if we admit the possi- 

 bility of such attention in the mouse — but this attentive con- 

 sciousness is not directive unless it is associated with the idea of 

 moving toward the food or away from the shock, and not then 

 unless this idea is accompanied by the actual movements, at least 

 in their incipiency. To put it in physiological terms, there must 

 be a connection between cortical centers for representation and the 

 motor areas, and this must be sufficiently energized to drain the 

 energy from the kinaesthetic system. This, as we have been 

 led to conclude from observing the behavior of the animal, is not 

 generally the case. The governing of movements is turned over 

 to the motor circuits, and thus it happens that time after time the 

 mouse runs into the same compartment, the compartment in 

 which it may receive a shock, but still the compartment which 

 it entered on previous occasions sufficiently numerous for a motor 

 circuit of a certain degree of stability to become established. 



The reverberating of excitation through the motor circuit in 

 the animal may be likened to a fly-wheel, which carries the animal 

 in one direction or another by its momentum. The cue for the 

 revolving of the wheel is afforded by the sensations which are 

 constantly coming from the incipient movements of the animal. 

 These may be reinforced by tactual impressions received from 

 the floor and walls of the compartment. 



The mental state of the mouse on entering the puzzle box may 



