A curiously interesting bit of behavior appeared for the first time on
June 29. Julius had gone to the first box at the right end of the group,
and instead of entering, he had wheeled around toward his right, and
turning a complete circle, faced the right box, which he promptly
entered. Subsequently, the tendency developed and the method was used
with increasing frequency. On June 30, it appeared in the first series,
four times, in the second series, six times; on July 1, in the first
series, three times, and in the second series, four times; on July 2, in
the first series, five times, and in the second series, nine times. It
was indeed only by accident that the animal failed to fulfill the
technical requirement for perfect solution of the problem in this
series. Yet, had he done so, his subsequent trials would doubtless have
revealed the lack of any other idea than that of turning completely
around before entering a box.
This odd bit of behavior proved peculiarly interesting and significant
in that the tendency to turn became dissociated from the position (in
front of the first box at the right end of the group) in connection with
which it originally developed. After a few days, Julius would enter the
reaction-chamber and instead of proceeding directly to the right end of
the group, would stop suddenly wherever he happened to be, turn toward
his right in a complete circle, and hasten into the box nearest to him
which, as often as not, proved to be the wrong one. Thus the idea of
turning completely about, which had it continued its association with
the idea of facing the first box at the right, would have yielded
success, instead became useless because of its dissociation. That the
orang utan is capable of using free ideas seems clear enough in the
light of this behavior. That he proved incapable of getting the idea of
second from the right end is as clearly shown by the detailed results of
table 9,--the fruits of weeks of experimenting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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