The Animal Mind; A Text-Book of Comparative Psychology (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1917 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI The Modification Of Conscious Processes By IndiVidual Experience (Continued) 76. The Recognition of Landmarks A Type of learning which stands by itself is that involved in the homing of certain animals. As we have seen, the evidence is conclusive that solitary wasps guide themselves back to the nests they have made by "recognizing" certain visual peculiarities of the surroundings. They are confused if the appearance of the nest or its vicinity is altered. On first leaving the nest in search of the prey with which to stock it, as food for the larva, they make an elaborate flight with many turnings in and out about the immediate neighborhood, which has been appropriately termed a locality survey. Now when the wasp has found and secured the caterpillar or spider which she seeks, she retraces her flight apparently with the guidance of the visual landmarks she noted on the outward journey. No one, it is true, has yet actually determined the homeward flight of the wasp in its relation to landmarks, but the probabilities are that such is her method of procedure. The peculiarity of such learning is that it does not depend on repetition. The wasp makes but one nest in a given situation, and in the case of certain species at least she makes but one flight in search of food and but one homing flight. She then makes a new nest in a new locality, impresses new landmarks upon her memory, and is guided in her next homing flight by the new and not the old landmarks. The learning is essentially rapid and temporary. Where, as for instance with the honey bee, the nest remains permanently fixed in one locality, guidance by visual landmarks does not differ from the ordinary types of learning where the process is gradual, where useless movements are eliminated ...