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
The average results for the twelve individuals (six of each sex) which
were subjected to the tests, I have arranged in Table 34. The Roman
numerals at the top of the table designate the seven groups of tests, and
the figures under each, the numerical results of the tests. I may explain
and comment upon the averages of the several columns of this table in
turn.
Column I gives the number of errors made in the preliminary test.
Curiously enough, the males made many more errors than the females.
For the second group of tests (II) two results have been tabulated: the
number of the first correct test, and the total number of tests before the
path was followed correctly five times in succession. The first correct
trip came usually after not more than five or six tests, but five
successive correct trips demanded on the average at least fourteen
training tests.
Destruction of the floor path by movement of the labyrinth to one side,
without changing its relations to the points of the compass, disturbed the
mice very little. Only four of the twelve individuals made any mistakes as
a result of the change in the tactual conditions, and the average error as
it appears in Column III is only .3.
TABLE 34
ROLE OF SIGHT, TOUCH, AND SMELL IN LABYRINTH EXPERIMENTS
II. IV.
TRAINING TESTS SMOKED
I. NO OF TESTS BEFORE III. PAPER ON
MALES PRELIMINARY CORRECT LABYRINTH FLOOR
TEST. _____________________ MOVED. NO OF TIMES
ERRORS FIRST TIME FIVE TIMES ERRORS BEFORE COR-
RECT TWICE
210 9 5 9 0 9
212 2 3 8 1 3
214 6 10 28 0 22
220 25 4 8 0 14
410 11 6 20 0 10
420 14 6 14 1 7
AVERAGES 11.2 5.7 14.5 .3 10.8
FEMALES
211 16 6 10 1 5
213 7 5 14 1 21
215 2 3 7 0 6
225 14 6 18 0 14
415 6 6 13 0 3
425 10 7 13 0 8
AVERAGES 9.2 5.5 12.5 .3 9.5
V.
DARKNESS VI.
MALES LABYRINTH VII.
ERRORS IN NO. OF TESTS WASHED. DARKNESS.
FIRST TEST BEFORE COR'CT ERRORS ERRORS
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