226 The Dancing Mouse 



satisfactory in general than the problem method as a means 

 of measuring the rapidity of habit formation in the dancer, 

 and I hope that I have made equally clear the fact that it 

 is very valuable as a means of discovering the roles of 

 the various senses in the acquirement of a habit (Chapter 

 XI). From my own experience in the use of the labyrinth 

 with the dancer and with other animals, I am forced to con- 

 clude that its chief value lies in the fact that it enables the 

 experimenter so to control the factors of a complex situation 

 that he may readily determine the importance of a given 

 kind of sense data for the formation or the execution of a 

 particular habit. As a means of measuring the intelligence 

 of an animal, of determining the facility with which it is; 

 capable of adjusting itself to new environmental conditions,' 

 and of measuring the permanency of modifications which 

 are wrought in its behavior by experimental conditions, I 

 value the labyrinth method much less highly now than I did 

 previous to my study of the dancer. It is necessarily too com- 

 plex for the convenient and reasonably certain interpretation 

 of results. Precisely what is meant by this statement will 

 be evident in the light of the results of the application of the 

 discrimination method to the dancer, which are to be pre- 

 sented in the next chapter. The labyrinth method is an 

 admirable means of getting certain kinds of qualitative re- 

 sults ; it is almost ideal as a revealer of the role of the senses, 

 and it may be used to advantage in certain instances for the 

 quantitative study of habit formation and memory. Never- 

 theless, I think it may safely be said that the problem method 

 and the discrimination method are likely to do more to ad- 

 vance our knowledge of animal behavior than the labyrinth 

 method. 



