INTEGRATION OF MOVEMENTS IN LEARNING IN THE RAT 385 



tations cannot pass through the synapses, or that the mechanism 

 for the production of the " congruous" movements is undevel- 

 oped, and all movements are " incongruous/' or that when forced 

 movements do not lead to the solution of a problem an organized 

 mechanism for their production is either absent or functionally 

 undeveloped? In all these theories an organization for their 

 production must be assumed to be present, since learning in all 

 instances is dependent, primarily upon the production of sensory 

 excitations. Possibly when an animal fails to solve a problem no 

 consideration need be taken of the conditions that produce fail- 

 ures; it is sufficient in any theory of learning to consider only 

 positive results. 



It is evident that any theory of learning which would consider 

 all movements performed by an animal of physiological impor- 

 tance would be at variance with existing theories of learning; 

 with such ideas as the production of forced movements, or the 

 necessity of assuming a twofold division of movements and the 

 insistence of a form of " sensory association" for the retention 

 of the movements that solve the problem. It is our purpose in 

 this paper to show by an investigation of the integrated move- 

 ments in learning in the white rat; (1) that learning begins from 

 the moment the rat is placed in the problem for preliminary feed- 

 ing; (2) that all movements at all times are of equal importance 

 in solving a problem, and that they are fundamental, inherent, 

 integrated movements conjoined, or coordinated; (3) that several 

 conjoined movements are used in an exaggerated manner to 

 solve a problem, and a greater development of interaction of 

 body parts is necessary for an exaggerated performance of these 

 movements; (4) that no definite movements are retained, but, 

 through training, these movements are performed with greater 

 facility as is the case with any exercised part of an animal's 

 body; and (5) that solution of a problem does not occur because 

 an animal responds "successfully" after making repeated " ef- 

 forts" to do something. 



Any arbitrary division in this investigation of the integrated 

 movements necessary to learning, would be quite out of place, 

 since no component of all movements produced by a rat can be 



