method only after many failures to reach the desired result through efforts very similar to those represented in Figs, 1 and 2. The reader will note that in Fig. 5 she is shown to be using the beak on the string in addition to the pull by the claws. This was done rather often when the door was a bit refractory. In other photographs not here reproduced it is shown that in the act of opening the door she scarcely stopped flying.
In one of his books C. Lloyd Morgan has called this method of animal learning that of "trial and error." This phrase has long been adopted by students of Animal Behavior. The reader will at once see that in the above series of photographs the writer was fortunate enough to obtain from this initial series a succession of this "hit and miss" or "try, try again" method purely accidental at first with the simplest and most direct act gradually selected. There is no question but that it is distinctively the animal method of learning. It means that successes are followed up because of the reward or pleasure (food in this case) which they bring. It means failures or less direct methods are discontinued because of the lack of satisfaction or pleasure.[1]
In the accompanying table are recorded some of the results of this first series of experiments. For lack of space many of those results which merely show a reduction in time required are omitted. With this and succeeding tables the reader is to infer that no significant change occurred in those cases which are omitted. The times are given in minutes and fractions thereof, and the number of errors is also given. Attention may at once be called to the fact that the times are not so rapidly and uniformly reduced to a minimum as in earlier experiments with the same birds, and as will be shown in later experiments with different birds, but it must be kept in mind that the number of efforts and not the time is the better measure. And also if this better measure does not show rapid learning, it should be remembered that rate of learning is not that 'in which we are primarily interested. Imitation is our first interest in these tests. It will be seen many times before we conclude, that a longer time or many efforts, extreme cau-
- ↑ The writer feels impelled to suggest that if Principal Morgan's phrase were revised to read "trial and success" instead of "trial and error" it would much more satisfactorily express what is here needed. The words "trial and error" express the unpleasant, the non-satisfying, the negative aspect of these responses while "success" could be expected to carry with it more directly the pleasurable and positive aspect. Some may point to the unwisdom of such a change when the phrase has become one of our stock-in-trade. The answer might be, however, that our science of Animal Behavior is still in its earliest infancy when changes are most easily made.
