Since it was now possible to lock the doors and confine the animal for
any desired period, on June 5 the interval of punishment was made sixty
seconds, and a liberal quantity of banana, beet, or carrot was offered
as reward. No increase in the number of successful choices appeared, and
Julius showed discouragement. Sawdust had been strewn on the floor, and
in the intervals between trials as well as during confinement in wrong
boxes, he took to playing with the sawdust. He would take it up in one
hand and pour it from hand to hand until all had slipped through his
fingers, then he would scrape together another handful and go through
the same process. Often he became so intent on this form of amusement
that even when the exit door was raised, he would not immediately go to
get the food.
The reactive tendencies which appeared in the work on problem 2 will now
be presented in order, since I shall have to refer to them repeatedly,
and the list will be more useful to the reader at this point than at the
conclusion of the presentation of daily results. The following is not an
exhaustive list but includes only the most important and conspicuous
tendencies or methods together with the dates on which they were most
apparent.
(a) May 17, choice of first box at left of group or near it, then the
next in order, and so on, until the second from the right was reached.
This method with irregularities and certain definite skipping was used
at various times, sometimes over periods of several days, during the
course of the work.
(b) June 3, preference for number 3 and number 4 developed immediately
after the orang utan's illness and when he was working rather
listlessly.
On June 9 and 10, the original tendency (a) reappeared and persisted for
a number of series.
(c) June 14, a tendency to choose the box at or near the right end of a
group, and then the one next to it. In connection with this tendency,
which of course required only two choices in any given trial, interest
in playing with the sawdust on the floor developed.
Again on June 21, the animal returned to the use of tendency (a).
(d) June 29, movement to box at right end of group, hesitation before
it, and turning through a complete circle so that the second box from
the right was faced. This, the correct box, was often promptly entered.
This method, if persisted in, would obviously have yielded solution of
the problem.
(e) July 5, approach to and pretense to enter the box next to the right
end (right one), and then choice of some other box. This _feint_ is
peculiarly interesting, and its origin and persistence are difficult to
account for.
(f) In connection with the tendency to pretend that he was going to
enter the second box from the right end, Julius developed also the
tendency to turn around in front of the box at the right end, starting
sometimes to back into it, and then to enter, instead, the box second
from the end.
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