INTEGRATION OF MOVEMENTS IN LEARNING IN 

 THE ALBINO RAT 



A STUDY OF THE ADJUSTMENT OF AN ORGANISM TO AN 

 ENVIRONMENT 



JOHN LINCK ULRICH 

 I. INTRODUCTION 



It is usually said or is implied, that to accomplish the solution 

 of a problem, an animal displays an effort, or does something 

 definite to some part or other of the problem. An interpretation 

 of this effort, or of how the animal comes to solve the problem, 

 is based upon the way this effort is regarded. The idea of effort 

 is always kept in mind by most investigators of animal behavior, 

 when weighing the results of their observations. Either the ef- 

 fort shown by the animal is regarded as an evidence of intelligent 

 behavior, and the results produced as the outcome of purposeful, 

 self-directed, remodeled behavior; or the effort displayed is looked 

 upon as purely mechanical, and the result of sensory excitations. 

 In whatever way the effort displayed in an animal is viewed, it 

 is evidenced in the production of a number of movements, one, 

 or a group of which eventually solves the problem, and this last 

 movement, or series of movements, is pronounced successful in 

 contradistinction to the unsuccessful movements. This classi- 

 fication has almost invariably been the one used when consider- 

 ing the movements of an organism. Usually the recurrence of 

 the successful movements is supposed to produce a change, or 

 a reintegration in the nervous system, in some specific part to 

 establish one common path for the production of these movements. 



Explanations of learning in animals have therefore to a large 

 extent been dependent upon the working concept of " trial and 

 error," and with that which is inseparably bound up with it; 

 namely, a division of all movements into successful and unsuc- 



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PSTCHOBIOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. 5 



