The Mental Life of Monkeys and Apes - A Study of Ideational Behavior by Robert M. Yerkes
page 39 of 197 (19%)
page 39 of 197 (19%)
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The first result of this accident was that more than two weeks were lost, for it was impossible, during the next few days, to induce the animal to enter any of the multiple-choice boxes voluntarily. From May 14 to May 24, I labored daily to overcome his newly acquired fear. The usual procedure was to coax him through one box after another by standing at the exit door with some tempting morsel of food. After several days of this treatment, he again trusted himself to the boxes, although very circumspectly and only when both entrance and exit doors were raised. Not until May 24 was it possible to resume regular experimentation, and on that day it was found necessary to indicate the right box by raising the exit door slightly and then immediately lowering it. Trials in which this form of aid was given are indicated in table 2 by a star following the last choice. Gradually, Skirrl regained his confidence in the apparatus and began to work more naturally. For a long time he would not stand punishment, and it was necessary for the experimenter to be very careful in locking the doors, since the sound of the bar sliding beneath the floor often frightened and caused him to quit work. Day after day the tendency to peer through the holes in the floor at the entrance to the boxes rendered it clear that the animal feared some danger from beneath the floor. This behavior was so persistent that much time was wasted in the experiments. On the last day of May, punishment by confinement for ten seconds in wrong boxes was introduced, but since this tended to discourage the monkey, there was substituted for it on June 1 the punishment of forcing him to work his way out of each wrong box by raising the entrance door which had been closed behind him. This he could fairly readily do, and |
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