Role of Sight in Daily Life of Dancer 189 



important facts which appear in the illustrative data (for Nos. 

 7 and 998) which are presented, are the following. The dancers 

 readily learn the path of labyrinth B so that they can follow 

 it quickly and with perfect accuracy. After familiarity with 

 the direct path from entrance to exit has been gained, they 

 become indifferent about escaping and tend to wander aim- 

 lessly. The introduction of the electric shock as punish- 

 ment for the choice of the wrong passage impels them to do 

 their best to avoid errors. The path once learned can be 

 followed in total darkness with few or no errors. Table 32 

 indicates marked differences in the behavior of No. 7 and 

 No. 998. The latter learned the path readily and was little 

 disturbed by any of the changes in conditions. In total 

 darkness he followed the path rapidly and accurately, as 

 was indicated by the time of the trip and the path that he 

 left on a sheet of smoked paper that had been placed on the 

 floor of the labyrinth as a means of obtaining a record of the 

 errors made. The presence of the smoked paper did not 

 seem to interfere at all with his behavior, nor did the thorough 

 washing of the labyrinth and the resultant removal of its 

 odors. In the case of No. 7 the opposite was true. She 

 did not learn the path readily, was confused by any change 

 in conditions, had great difficulty in finding her way in dark- 

 ness, made errors when the smoked paper was placed on 

 the floor and after the odors of the labyrinth had been re- 

 moved by washing. Of the six dancers which were observed 

 in these preliminary tests, No. 7 alone gave convincing evi- 

 dence of the importance of sight. 



I think we may say in the light of the results of the table 

 that such errors as appear in the darkness tests are due 

 rather to the disturbing influence of a change in the condi- 

 tions of the experiment than to the exclusion of visual data, 

 for as many or more errors were sometimes caused simply by 



