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 delicacy of brightness discrimination--Methods of testing the dancer's
ability to detect slight differences in brightness--Results of tests with
gray papers--Relation of intensity of visual stimuli to the threshold of
discrimination--Weber's law apparatus and method of experimentation--
Results of Weber's law tests--Practice effects, the training of vision--
Description of the behavior of the dancer in the discrimination box
experiments--Modes of choice: by affirmation; by negation; by comparison--
Evidence of indiscriminable visual conditions.
CHAPTER IX
THE SENSE OF SIGHT: COLOR VISION
Does the dancer see colors?--The food-box method of testing color vision--
Waugh's food-box method--Results of tests--Tests by the use of colored
papers in the visual discrimination box--Yellow-red vision--Blue-orange
vision--Brightness vision _versus_ color vision--Brightness check
tests--Green-blue vision--Violet-red vision--Conclusions.
CHAPTER X
THE SENSE OF SIGHT: COLOR VISION (_Continued_)
The use of color filters--Testing color vision by the use of transmitted
light--Green-blue vision--Green-red vision--Blue-red vision--Stimulating
value of different portions of the spectrum--Does red appear darker to the
dancer than to us?--Conclusions concerning color vision--Structure of the
retina of the dancer and its significance.
CHAPTER XI
THE ROLE OF SIGHT IN THE DAILY LIFE OF THE DANCER.
Sight and general behavior--Behavior of blinded dancers--Experimental
tests of ability to perceive form--Visual guidance in mazes--Following
labyrinth paths in the dark--The relative importance of visual, olfactory,
and kinaesthetic stimuli--Conditions for the acquisition of a motor
habit--Conditions for the execution of an habitual act.
CHAPTER XII
EDUCABILITY: METHODS OF LEARNING
The modifiability of behavior--Educational value of experimental studies
of modifiability--Methods: the problem method; the labyrinth method; the
discrimination method--Relation of method to characteristics of animal--
Simple test of the docility of the dancer--Lack of imitative tendency--
Persistence of useless acts--Manner of profiting by experience--Individual
differences in initiative.
CHAPTER XIII
HABIT FORMATION: THE LABYRINTH HABIT
The labyrinth method--Problems--Preliminary tests--Comparison of the
behavior of the dancer in a maze with that of the common mouse--Evolution
of a labyrinth method--Records of time and records of errors--Simple and
effective method of recording the path--Curves of habit formation--Regular
and irregular labyrinths--Points for a standard labyrinth--Values and
defects of the labyrinth method.
CHAPTER XIV
HABIT FORMATION: THE DISCRIMINATION METHOD
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