Robert Mearns Yerkes

The Mental Life of Monkeys and Apes Robert Mearns Yerkes

Book Excerpt: ... All of the problems, however, are completely soluble by an organism of excellent ideational ability. For the human subject, the solution of the easiest problem of all requires almost no effort, whereas even moderately difficult problems may require many repetitions of effort and hours or days of application to the task. In each case, the solution of the problem depends upon the perception of a certain constant relation among a series of objects to which the subject is required to attend and respond. Such relations are, for example, secondness from one end of the group, middleness, simple alternation of ends, or progressive movement by constant steps from one end of a group to the other. It is possible to present such relational problems by means of relatively simple reaction-mechanisms. In their essential features, all of the several types of multiple-choice apparatus designed by the writer and used ...