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Reprinted from THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY 

 Vol. II, No. 2, April, 1922 



THE CONGENITAL SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF THE 

 YOUNG MALE ALBINO RAT 



CALVIN P. STONE 1 

 University of Minnesota 



INTRODUCTION 



1. Purpose of investigation 



The general use of experimental technique in the study of 

 congenital behavior of lower and higher animals reflects a grad- 

 ually changing trend of psychological interest in this subject. 

 Interest is shifting from problems centered in the determination 

 of significant relationships between conscious and organic proc- 

 esses to those defining units of response and analyzing the stimuli 

 by which they are activated. As yet, however, in the field of 

 animal psychology, investigations of congenital behavior have 

 not been sufficiently intensive to give a complete account of 

 either the overt patterns of activity or the activating stimuli. 

 They have furthered an understanding of limited aspects of 

 particular responses, given valuable suggestions along lines of 

 methodology, and copiously illustrated the erroneous nature of 

 many of the older conceptions concerning native behavior; 

 but, in general, the scope of these accounts is too limited to place 

 our knowledge of the subject as a whole on a fundamental work- 

 ing basis. For this reason there is need, at the present time, of 

 comprehensive studies of fundamental types of native behavior. 

 Intensive studies will yield data that may be used as guides in 

 the reorganization and expansion of current views of these 

 activities. 



For the advancement of the science of animal behavior, 

 there is need of intensive genetic studies of complex patterns of 

 native behavior to ascertain the life histories of both the constitu- 

 ent elements and the patterns as wholes. With respect to the 



1 1 wish hereby to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. K. S. Lashley at whose 

 suggestion and under whose direction this experiment was conducted. 



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