Laws and Hypotheses for Behavior 271 
all once, or reached the one that puts an end to the situa- 
tion. 
The second limitation may be illustrated in the simple 
hypothetical case of three responses, 1, 2 and 3, of which 
No. 2 is successful. Suppose the animal always to go 
through his repertory with zo repetitions until he reaches 2 
and so closes the series. 
Only the following can happen : — 
12 
E32 
2 
2 
g12 
a2 
and, in the long run, 2 will happen twice as often as 1 or 3 
happens. 
Suppose the animal to repeat each response of his reper- 
tory six times before changing to another, the remaining 
conditions being as above. Then only the following can 
happen : — 
tr irre? 
TLRIELI23 33342 
2 
2 
493933352 Tr rr 
333333 2; 
and in the long run 2 will happen one third as often as 1 or 3 
and, though always successful, must, by Smith’s theory, 
appear later and later, so that if the animal meets the 
situation often enough, he will eventually fail utterly in it! 
Animals do, as a matter of fact, commonly repeat responses 
many times before changing them,’ so that if only the law 
1 Professor Smith’s own experiments illustrate this. 
