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For the major portion of my experimental work, only three of the eleven animals were used. A growing male, P. rhesus monkey, known as Sobke; a mature male, P. irus, called Skirrl; and the young orang utan, which had been named Julius. Plates I and II present these three subjects of my experiments in characteristically interesting attitudes.
In other words, in every one of the ten trials Skirrl entered first the box at the extreme right end of the group. This necessarily resulted in as many right as wrong first choices. Consequently, the ratio reads 1 to 1. But the method was not adhered to, and at no time either before or after that date did he succeed in equalling this achievement.
I hesitate to infer definite ideation from the available evidence, but I strongly suspect the presence of images and relatively ineffective or inadequate ideation. It is perfectly evident that Sobke is much more intelligent than Skirrl.
On April 10 the apparatus was painted white in order to increase the lightness and thus render it easier for the experimenter to observe the animal's movements, and when on April 12 Skirrl was again introduced to it for further preliminary training, he utterly refused to enter the boxes, giving every indication of extreme fear of the white floors and even of the sides of the boxes.
The delayed reaction method of Hunter, the quadruple-choice method of Hamilton, and my multiple-choice method offer new and promising approaches to forms of activity which thus far have been only superficially observed. The ability exhibited by Skirrl to try a method out and then to abandon it suddenly is characteristic of animals high in intelligence.
On the morning of May 13, work was interrupted in the ninth trial by what seemed at the moment a peculiarly unfortunate accident, but in the light of later developments, an incident most fruitful of valuable results. Skirrl, in trial 9, directly entered box 1. Since this was not the right box, he was punished by being confined in it for ten seconds.
Skirrl climbed up on the largest box and made efforts to pull the middle sized one up on to it, the while looking at the banana every few seconds. He did not succeed in getting the boxes properly placed, and after a time began moving them about restlessly. His behavior plainly indicated that hunger was not his chief motive.
At the moment the picture was taken, Skirrl's attention had been attracted by a monkey in an adjoining cage, and he had momentarily looked up from his task, the while holding nail and hammer perfectly still. This test was repeated on various days, and almost uniformly Skirrl showed intense interest in hammer and nails and used them more or less persistently in the manner described.
Consequently, observations were interrupted on the completion of trial 132, and on May 5, the series was begun with setting 3. On this date, eighteen trials were given in succession, and in only one of them did a mistake occur. Since the ten trials numbered 133 to 142 were correct, Skirrl was considered to have solved problem 1, and systematic training was discontinued.
Stimulated by the obvious left-handedness, in certain connections, of Julius and Skirrl, I tested the preference of several of the monkeys in the following simple way. Standing outside the cage I would hold out a peanut to a hungry animal, keeping it so far from the cage that the monkey could barely reach it with its fingers. I noted the hand which was used to grasp the food.
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