The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal BehaviorYerkes, Robert Mearns
Science
The Dancing Mouse: A Study in Animal Behavior
Yerkes, Robert Mearns
Animal behavior; Dancing mice
1 June 1 Blue 74 c.m.
Green 36 c.m. 3 7 3 7
2 2 Same 5 5 4 6
3 3 Same 5 5 6 4
4 4 Same 6 4 3 7
5 5 Same 6 4 5 5
6 6 Blue 21 c.m.
Green 21 c.m. 6 4 7 3
7 7 Same 2 8 3 7
8 8 Same 5 5 4 6
9 9 Same 3 7 6 4
10 10 Same 2 8 4 6
11 12 Same 6 4 3 7
12 13 Blue 36 c.m.
Green 21 c.m. 3 7 4 6
13 14 Same 5 5
14 15 Blue 62 c.m.
Green 21 c.m. 4 6
15 16 Same 5 5
16 17 Same 5 5
17 18 Same 6 4
Now, as a final test, blue and green glasses were placed over the
electric-boxes, the brightness of the two was equalized for the human eye,
and the tests of series 18 and 19 were given to No. 2:--
TABLE 27--CONTINUED
NO. 2
SERIES DATE BRIGHTNESS VALUES
RIGHT WRONG
(Blue) (Green)
18 18 Blue 62 c.m.
Green 21 c.m 4 6
19 19 Same 6 4
20 20 Blue 21 c.m.
Green 88 c.m. 2 8
The green was now made much the brighter.
21 21 Blue 21 c.m.
Green 18 c.m. 7 3
22 23 Same 8 2
To begin with, the blue and the green were made quite bright for the human
subject, blue 74 candle meters, green 36. Later the brightness of both was
first decreased, then increased, in order to ascertain whether
discrimination was conditioned by the absolute strength of illumination.
No evidence of discrimination was obtained with any of the several
conditions of illumination in seventeen series of ten tests each.
On the supposition that the animals were blinded by the brightness of the
light which had been used in some of the tests, similar tests were made
with weaker light. The results were the same. I am therefore convinced
that the animals did justice to their visual ability in these experiments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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