Evening star., 1934-09-23

lum UllS rdu " Siiouiu
prove extremely popular
with the members of East Teabone's
youngest set, some of whom have been
waiting for more than five years to
get even with the old folks at home.
In laboratory experiments the aver
age psychologist seldom picks on any
Sody his own size. He prefers (a)
babies, or (b) people who have been
dropped on their heads when babies.
Sometimes he confines his attention
entirely to animals, but they are always
small animals like mice or guinea pigs.
I knew one professor who worked for
weeks in an effort to find out whether
fish are color blind. He kept catfish
named Julia in tank on the back
porch, and at night he performed ex-
periments with colored lights. Every
time Julia came up to the surface when
q green light was on, he tossed her a
hunk OF bread; and every time she
came up when a red light was on, he
whacked her across the nose with
stick. Julia soon learned to stay down
when the red light was on. But in the
meantime her mentor, who suffered from
the usual observation-disclosures of his pro-
feSSion, was arrested six times for diSre-
garding traffic signals.
Another professor knew constructed
m extensive labyrinth in order to find
out whether white mice have any def
mite sense of direction. On the first day
he put six mice in the center Of the
maze and left them to work their way
out. Next morning three of the mice
were still there; the others had made
their escape. The following morning
only two mice remained, which seemed
to indicate mouse I. @. Of about 80.
But the morning after that, when the
professor went down to his study he
found IL mice in the center Of the maze.
Apparently the two old settlers, after
searching vainly for an exit from the
Labyrinth, had decided to make the
best of it.
THE professor embodied this interesting
data in a paper which he was in
vfted to read before a meeting of ia
NOUS scientists. But the paper was
never read. On arriving in the city he
lost his way among the ramps. and re-
cesses of Grand Central Station and was
only discovered three days later on the
Times Square shuttle, muttering, "Are
we mice or are we men?"
Neither of these learned gentlemen
you will note, chose very formidable vic
Tins for their experiments. The dis
ciplinarian of the catfish, for example,
knew better than to try his tricks on
an alligator.
Psychologists find the smaller fauna
more tractable. And when they turn
from the study Of animal behavior to
the study of human behavior, they uSu-
ally select the smaller humans avail
able for investigation; the younger the
better. If they can get a newborn
babe and keep him under constant
observation for a few years, they can
shape the pattern of his entire life
Thanks to child psychology, your child
may now be conditioned" against tan
trums, thumb sucking, stammering,
sleep walking, left-handedness and say
ing "You na-a-asty mani" This heir
conditioning is sort of mental vacci-
nation which, if performed early
enough, insures lifelong immunity.
But now that the kindergartners are
taking up psychology themselves, things
may be different. Junior Milfret has
already made numerous experiments
upon his parents, which show that
grOwn-upS can be as fascinating as
bebies to the student of behaviorism-
When only years old Junior began