184 SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 
other chick, who is continually being put in with him to teach 
him the way out, really prolongs his stay in. This factor | 
destroys the value of these quantitative experiments, and I do 
not,” says Mr. Thorndike, “insist upon them as evidence 
against imitation, though they certainly offer none for it.” 
Chicks, from sixteen to thirty days old, were also placed in 
boxes from which escape was open to them by such acts as 
pecking at the door, stepping on a platform, or pecking at a 
tack. The method of experiment was to put a chick in, leave 
him from sixty to eighty seconds, then put in another who 
knew the act, and on his performing it to let both escape. No 
cases were counted unless the imitator apparently saw the 
other do the thing. After about every ten such chances to 
learn the act, the imitator was left in alone for ten minutes. 
Out of thirteen cases tabulated only once was the act per- 
formed, in spite of the ample chance for imitation. ‘I have 
no hesitation,” adds Mr. Thorndike, “‘in declaring this one’s 
act in stepping on the platform the result of mere accident, 
and am sure that any one who had watched the experiments 
would agree.” 
To test the influence, if any, of imitation in cats, the 
following method was adopted. A box was arranged with two 
compartments separated by a wire screen. ‘‘ The larger of 
these had a front of wooden bars with a door which fell open 
when a string stretched across the top was bitten or clawed 
down. The smaller was closed by boards on three sides and 
by the wire screen on the fourth. Through the screen a cat 
within could see the one to be imitated pull the string, go out 
through the door thus opened, and eat the fish outside. When 
put in this compartment, the top being covered by a large box, 
a cat soon gave up efforts to claw through the screen, quieted 
down, and watched more or less the proceedings going on in the 
other compartment. Thus this apparatus could be used to test 
the power of imitation. A cat who had no experience with 
the means of escape from the large compartment was put in 
the closed one; another cat, who would do it readily, was 
allowed to go through the performance of pulling the string, 
