[Illustration: FIG 22.--Cage used in Professor Thorndike’s experiments.]
To Dr. Thorndike’s monograph we must refer those who desire detailed information as to apparatus and procedure. It must here suffice to state that the box-cages employed were rudely constructed of wooden laths, and formed cramped prisons about twenty inches long by fifteen broad and twelve high. Nine contained such simple mechanisms as Dr. Thorndike describes in the passage above quoted. When a loop or cord was pulled, a button turned, or a lever depressed, the door fell open. In another, pressure on the door as well as depression of a thumb-latch was required. In one cage two simple acts on the part of the kitten were necessary, pulling a cord and pushing aside a piece of board; and in yet others three acts were requisite. In those boxes from which escape was more difficult a few of the cats failed to get out. The times occupied in thoroughly learning the trick of the box by those who were successful are plotted in a series of curves, the essential feature of which is the graphic expression of a gradual diminution in the time interval between imprisonment and escape in successive trials. This is shown in Fig. 23, which is constructed from some of Dr. Thorndike’s data. In some cases the cats were set free from a box when they (1) licked themselves or (2) scratched themselves.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Diagram showing times taken by a kitten to escape from the cage in twenty-four successive experiments.]
Dr. Thorndike comments on the results of his experiments as follows:--
“When put into the box the cat would show evident signs of discomfort and of an impulse to escape from confinement. It tries to squeeze through any opening; it claws and bites at the bars or wire; it thrusts its paws out through any opening, and claws at everything it reaches; it continues its efforts when it strikes anything loose and shaky: it may claw at things within the box. It does not pay very much attention to the food outside, but seems simply to strive instinctively to escape from confinement. The vigour with which it struggles is extraordinary. For eight or ten minutes it will claw, and bite, and squeeze incessantly.... The cat that is clawing all over the box in her impulsive struggle will probably claw the string, or loop, or button so as to open the door. And gradually all the other non-successful impulses will be stamped out, and the particular impulse leading to the successful act will be stamped in by the resulting pleasure, until, after many trials, the cat will, when put in the box, immediately claw the button or loop in a definite way.... Starting, then, with its store of instinctive impulses, the cat hits upon the successful movement, and gradually associates it with the sense-impression of the interior of the box until the connection is perfect, so that it performs the act as soon as confronted with the sense-impression.... Previous experience makes a difference in the quickness with which the cat forms the associations. After getting out of six or eight boxes by different sorts of acts, the cat’s general tendency to claw at loose objects within the box is strengthened and its tendency to squeeze through holes and bite bars is weakened; accordingly it will learn associations along the general line of the old more quickly. Associations between licking or scratching and escape are similarly established, and there was a noticeable tendency to diminish the act until it becomes a mere vestige of a lick or scratch. After the cat gets so that it performs the act soon after being put in, it begins to do it less and less vigorously. The licking degenerates into a mere quick turn of the head with one or two motions up and down with tongue extended. Instead of a hearty scratch, the cat waves its paw up and down rapidly for an instant.”