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THE FORMATION OF USELESS HABITS IN TWO 

 BRITISH NEWTS (MOLGE CRISTATA, Laur., 

 AND M. PALMATA, Schneid.), WITH OBSERVA- 

 TIONS ON THEIR GENERAL BEHAVIOUR. 



By Bruce F. Cummings. 



(Concluded from p. 175.) 



V. 



My conclusions are : — 



1. That Newts, in a labyrinth, rapidly acquire simple habits 

 of movement. Plasticity is shown, for these rapidly acquired 

 habits as rapidly disintegrate and become re-acquired, although 

 the acquiring of a habit takes longer than its re-acquirement, 

 after short intervals from about twenty minutes. 



2. On account of the Newt's plasticity, a simple habit can 

 be "forced" in a short space of time by frequency of stimulus. 



3. The plasticity must again serve to account for the large 

 number and elaboration of useless habits formed, from which no 

 pleasurable result accrued. 



4. A movement, once made, tends to be repeated. Apart 

 from useless habits, I observed throughout how frequently quite 

 insignificant and useless movements were carried out twice in 

 succession, or sometimes three times. 



5. Motor sensations are chiefly used in learning the labyrinth. 

 It "feels" the direction in which to turn (and in which it has 

 previously turned) through the effects of previous muscular 

 sensations. Touch also helps, but sight only a little. 



6. The strong " nosing " instinct or stereoscopic reflex can 

 be partially inhibited, and a perfect habit temporarily formed. 



I have given in the preceding pages some of the most inte- 

 resting and the most typical examples of behaviour that I 

 observed. All the other experiments with the rest of the Newts 

 confirmed the conclusions above, but none of the animals, of 

 course, succeeded in learning the more complicated mazes per- 



