490 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



ON THE ORIENTATION OF AN ANIMAL IN A 

 PROBLEM-BOX 



RUTLEDGE T. WlLTBANK, KnOX COLLEGE 



It is stated by Thorn&ike in his "Animal Intelli- 

 gence" l that in learning to open the door of a problem- 

 box a cat gradually associates the successful movement 

 with the sense-impression of the interior of the box, so 

 that the cat comes to perform the act as soon as it is 

 confronted with the sense-impression. The particular 

 impression with which the movement is associated is 

 that of the button or other devise fastening the door 

 on the inside. "It makes little or no difference whether 

 the box from which a cat has learned to escape by turn- 

 ing a button is faced north, south, east or west. * * * • 

 * * * The cat will operate the mechanism substantially 

 as well as it did before." 2 



That these statements of Thorndike's, — to the effect 

 that the animal's orientation is to the sense-impression 

 of the interior of the box, and that the changing of the 

 position of the box does not make any substantial dif- 

 ference in the successful adjustment of an animal which 

 has already learned to turn the button, — are not always 

 true, and perhaps never true, is indicated by the follow- 

 ing experiment. 



A cat was allowed to learn to open a problem-box 

 which throughout the learning remained in the same 

 position, facing the east. The box was then turned 

 through 180 degrees, and the animal reintroduced into 

 it. The cat went through the pawing motion of turning 

 the button, but on the east side of the box, although the 

 door and the button were now to the west. 



The original learning, when the door was to the east, 

 required twenty-eight trials. Two days afterwards the 

 cat showed perfect retention of the habit. It was then 

 that the box was turned through 180 degrees, and the 

 cat put in again, the result being as noted above. All 

 the conditions, including dishes of food equidistant from 

 the four sides of the box, were retained as in the first 



1 Psych. Rev. Mon. Supp., No. 8, 1898, p. 15. 



• Thorndike : Educ. Psych., Briefer Course, p. 184. 



