Two Methods to Open a Door
- Author:
Lightnek. Witmer.
Curiosity and Imitation Impel a Macacus Monkey, without Training, to Lift the Latch and Open a Door Intelligent Imitation and Curiosity in a Monkey.
This monkey is a Macacus (M. cynomolgus) brought by Dr William H. Furness 3rd from the Island of Java. The animal is a female and has just reached puberty. Her dominant traits are constant activity and curiosity. This makes her exceedingly troublesome when given the freedom of a room. A dark corner, cupboard, or pocket tempts her to investigate, regardless of the consequences. Until recently she was kept in a cage in a room of Dr Furness’ greenhouse. A door of this room is shown in the illustrations accompanying this article. The door was fastened by an ordinary latch. The monkey was often released from her cage and given the freedom of the room. She spent this time in constant motion, jumping and climbing about, examining every object with fleeting but minute attention. Perhaps it was the mere impulse to explore which led her in the first instance to open the door of the greenhouse. She did this first by hanging by her hind legs from a pipe just below the roof, reaching the latch with her hands, as shown in one of the two illustrations. There was no trial and error, for Dr Furness tells me she succeeded in lifting the latch and pulling the door open at the first attempt. She had never been subjected to any of the lock and maze experiments of the animal psychologists, nor had any effort been made to train her. She was never known to hang by her hind legs in examining or playing with any other object in the room. She may have conceived the purpose of opening the greenhouse door, thus making an intelligent attempt to imitate the persons whom she had seen going in and out of this door. She has never imitated any action which was not of direct interest to herself. Properly speaking, she does not blindly imitate at all. She does only what instinct and interest lead her to undertake.
She learned to open the door of her cage and also the door leading into another room, the knob of which she could reach through the bars of her cage. This door was partly of glass and through it she could look into the adjoining room. On one occasion I saw her observe intently some people in this room who were about to come into the room containing her cage. She then reached through the bars of the cage, turned the knob of the door, pushed the door wide open and sat waiting on her haunches with expectant gaze. There could be no doubt that she had conceived in her mind the entrance into the room of the persons whom she saw in the adjoining room, and it looked as though she had opened the door for the purpose of allowing them to enter.
She learned to lift the latch of the door of her room by another method shown in the second of the two illustrations. To do this she climbed up the screen partition wall until she reached the height of the latch. She learned this method some time after she had been opening the door by the method of hanging from above. She was never taught either method; in fact she was punished for opening the door. Punishment had no effect upon her and it became necessary to stop her from escaping into the next room by attaching to the door a small bar which could be turned to hold the latch in place. She never learned to move this bar to one side and very soon her attempts to open the door became less frequent. The method by which she was induced to open the door when we undertook to photograph her in the act calls attention to the importance of finding motives which really appeal to the animal intelligence we may have under investigation. Thus, we tried to persuade her to manipulate the latch by calling her attention to it, opening and shutting the door, carrying her to the door and placing her hand on the latch. She would make no effort to do what we desired. Tier hand when placed on the latch fell feebly from it. I tried to induce her to hang from the pipe with her hind legs, lifting her into the proper position, but she would not try to hang from the bar. We were compelled to give up our attempt to photograph her and did not succeed until we tried a different method some days following. Dr Twitmyer, who took the photograph, remained in the room with her, ready to snap the picture as soon as she should be in position. Dr Furness and I went through the door into the greenhouse, called to her, stamped our feet, came back and looked into the room, jiggled the latch and finally succeeded in getting her mind fixed upon the idea of following us into the next room. Perhaps we were breaking down in the animal’s mind the opposing influence of the previous punishment which she had received for opening the door. At all events, she finally opened the door several times and by both methods. The illustrations are photographs of the animal at the moment of lifting the latch.
I fear to make hasty interpretations of animal behavior, but I must admit I have been struck by what appear to be flashes of intelligence which are the result of a momentary concentration of attention. Since Herbart’s time we have been willing enough to recognize the educational value of an appeal to the child’s natural interest. The animal has interests also, but these are not necessarily the same as human interests. A just measure of an animal’s intelligence can be made only by studying him at moments when his whole interest is aroused. A blind instinct to do something, no matter what, or a blind curiosity, may indeed have inspired the first opening of the door. Of a blind impulse to imitate, such as appears in the anthropoids and in children and even in men and women, I have seen no trace in this monkey. She pays no heed to what does not concern her. But let her interest be aroused and she manifests through her behavior an awakened consciousness which approaches the human under like circumstances. What’ ever motive may have inspired the first opening of the door, I believe the act came to be a conscious and intelligent imitation of a human action, and, at the time she was photographed, was performed with a consciously conceived purpose of gaining an entrance into the adjoining room.
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