SOLUTIONS OF PATTERNED STRING PROBLEMS BY YOUNG GORILLAS1

AUSTIN H. RIESKN, BERNARD GREBNBERG, ARTHUR S. GRANSTON, AND ROBERT L. FANTZ

The University of Chicago and Roosevelt College

Relatively few tests have been devised for Finch added one pattern (his pattern 11) to the 10
directly comparing the perceptual capacities problems in Series II of Harlow and Settlage. The 11
patterns are diagrammed in Figure 1. An additional
of animals at various levels of the phylogenetic final testing condition was added by us in which patterns
scale (5), or even of the same animal at different 4 and It were interchanged on successive trials in an
stages of its development. Still fewer compara- irregular balanced order. This testing condition was
tive tests have been reasonably well standard- used with two of our three 5s.
ized. Solutions of simple patterned string
problems have been shown to vary with age Subjects
during the first year in the human infant (6). The 5s for this experiment were three of the four
Adult chimpanzees solve more complex prob- young lowland gorillas, Gorilla gorilla, obtained in
lems than monkeys do (2, 3, 4, 8), and there Africa by zoo Director R. Marlin Perkins for the
is evidence of differences in ability between Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, in October, 1948. At that
time their estimated ages, as determined by body
species of monkeys (4, 8). The purposes of the weight and size, were: Lotus, 2% yr.; Irvin Young, 2
present investigation were to extend the com- yr.; Sinbad, 8 mo. The fourth animal in the group,
parisons to another of the anthropoid apes, Rajah, estimated age, lj<j yr., was caged together with
the gorilla, and to evaluate further the pat- Lotus. Rajah was not used in the present experiment
because Lotus completely dominated the position at the
terned string problem as a method for measur- apparatus whenever a problem was presented. Irvin
ing psychological development. Young and Sinbad were each housed in separate cages.
Comparative studies of primate behavior
have heretofore almost entirely neglected the Procedure
gorilla (7, 10). The increasing availability of
this animal in America has induced Yerkes Virtually no preliminary adaptation to the problem
was necessary with Irvin Young, who pulled in single,
(10) to plead for an intensification of psycho- baited strings immediately and promptly chose the cor-
biological research on this subject, lest the op- rect string when first confronted with problem 1. The
portunity be lost, perhaps even by extinction other two 5s were more awkward or more timid. Sinbad
of the species. was able to grasp the string at the end of one prelimi-
nary session, after repeated efforts to scrape or drag it
METHOD
along the board. Lotus required three sessions before
fear of the apparatus was overcome.
String problems used in previous studies varied from Sinbad, the youngest 5 on his Series I (Table 1),
one investigation to another until Finch (2) duplicated worked sporadically because of fluctuations in food
the patterns of Harlow and Settlage (4), in order to motivation. Work was twice interrupted, in February
compare the capacities of chimpanzees and monkeys. and March, 1949, because of colds in the gorilla colony.
In the present experiment we have retained the essential Following the March interruption more than a year
features of the apparatus described by Finch for his elapsed before the series of problems was begun over
second experiment. The string patterns were always again (Series II) with this 5. Within the second series
arranged and the appropriate string "baited" while the there were interruptions occasioned by Bushman's fail-
platform was beyond the reach of the 5 and hidden ing health, when quiet in the gorilla house was re-
from view by a vertically sliding panel. White sash quested.
cord weighted internally with lead pellets was used, the The dates of all experimental sessions arc given in
weights serving to hold the strings in position and to the table. Where motivation sufficed, SO trials were pre-
facilitate grasping. The diameter of the cord was 2.8 sented at a single experimental session. A morning and
mm. between the pellets and 4 mm. at the position of an afternoon session were sometimes given on the same
each pellet. The pellets were spaced at intervals of 8 mm. day. Correction was permitted on error trials when
along the cord. disturbance of motivation appeared imminent, or when
5 was too quick to permit intervention. The majority
1
Supported in part by Army Medical Research of errors went uncorrected. A problem having an
Contract DA-49-007-MD-36. The cooperation of Mr. asymmetrical pattern was alternated every 5 trials
R. Marlin Perkins, Director, Mr. J. Lear Grimmer, Zo- with its mirror image, as in previous studies. The string
ologist, and staff members of Lincoln Park Zoo, Chi- to be baited was altered from one trial to the next in an
cago, is gratefully acknowledged. irregular balanced order.
19
20 RIESEN, GREENBERG, GRANSTON^AND^FANTZ

RESULTS between trials. The final tests (4 and 11 inter-

Table 1 presents the error scores for each changed) were omitted because this 5 was
set of 50 trials for each subject. Lotus, the
oldest of the 5s, was consistently the most TABLE 1
accurate. She always used her left hand for Error Scores for Groups of 50 Trials
pulling the string. Irvin Young used the right
I.OTDS (female)* IKVIN YOUNG (male)t
hand exclusively in 7 of the 50-trial sessions,
and even in the other 14 sessions used the left NUMBEH Trials Trials
hand on only 20 per cent of all trials. Sinbad Dates Dates
1-50 51-100 1-50 51-100
(Fig. 2) used either hand about equally often,
but sometimes showed long "runs" in which 1 12/27/48 0 12/21/48 (2 in 25)
one hand was used consistent!}'. 2 12/27 0 12/21 (0 in 20)
3 12/28 0 12/22 8 i
4 12/29, 0 0 12/22, 18 •1
12/30 12/23
5 12/30, 2 2 12/24 15 12
1/2/49
6 1/6 0 2 12/26 11 11
7 1/8, 1/9 0 2 12/28 6 2
/ 2 So 3a
8 1/14, 0 0 12/29 0 0
1 1/15
V \1 9 1/16, 3 2 12/30 2 9
1/22
10 1/24 17 3 1/2/49 22 26
11 1/29 32t 7 1/6 42§ 20
5o 60 1/7 17 ; (3 in 40)
4 and 11 in- 2/4 2 3 1/8, 1/9, 6 10
terchanged 1/14

SINIJAD (male)

10 II SERIES I* SEMES lift

Inc. 1. tAdapted from Finch (2).] The series of 11 NUMBER —

patterns used in the present experiment, after Harlow Trials Trials
Dates Dates
and Settlage, with problem 11 added by Finch. Dis-
tances between baited ends of the strings were 2 in. in 1-50 51-100 1-5 51-100
problems 2, 3, 5, and 10. In all other problems these 1 12/22/48 1(7 in 30)
distances were 4 in. A distance of 15 in. separated the 1 2/5/49, 2/13 15 7 7/17/50, 8 3
bait hooks from the row of screw eyes which held the 7/19
ends of the cords nearest the subject. 2 2/19, 2/20 1 0 7/21, 7/24 7 •j
3 2/26, 2/27 11 11 7/28, 8/18 2 1
4 3/12, 3/13 19 (4 in 15) 8/21, 8/23 10 4
Problems 10 and 11 proved troublesome for 5 8/25, 8/27 12 7
all three 5s. Only Lotus showed reliably better 6 8/30, 9/1 13 9
than chance performance on these two prob- 7 10/24, 16 6
10/25
lems for either the first or second session of 50 8 10/26, 6 4
trials. Problem 11 was at first responded to as 10/31
9 11/1, 11/3 5 5
a single intersection of strings, i.e., like prob- 10 11/7, 11/8 21 21
lem 4, by all three 5s. This difficulty was 11 11/14, 36H 29
overcome by Lotus and by Irvin Young, the 11/15
latter giving evidence of correct response (19
* Estimated age at start, 33 months,
correct) in the last 25 trials of the 100. This t Estimated age at start, 24 months.
improvement continued in another 90 trials \ Errors on all of first 9 trials.
§ Only 3 correct in first 40 trials,
with Irvin before the interchanging of problems ** Estimated age at start, 10 months.
4 and 11 was tried. tt Estimated age at start, 29 months,
Sinbad was poorest in accuracy, in part, tt 18 errors in first 20 trials.
perhaps, because he was the least methodical
or most playful subject. During both the early becoming more prone to jerking the strings
and later series playful activity about the loose from the apparatus, or playfully refusing
cage sometimes intervened for long periods to return to the task. (At no time was food
 STRING TKST PKRFORMANCK liY GORTIXAS
deprivation resorted to to increase motiva-
tion, as this was against zoo policy.)
The manner of responding by all three 5s
gives only tentative suggestions as to the
mode of problem solution. In general, response
was a direct reaching for one string or the other
promptly after the board was pushed forward,
provided S was directly in front of the board
at the time. Sighting along strings was observed
only in a few isolated instances. Occasionally
an initial reaching movement was checked, and
then redirected or continued, but 011 approx-
imately 90 per cent of all trials, even with
Fie. 2. Subject Sinbad at work
difficult problems, reaching was prompt and
direct. On the first problem all 5s seemed to
perceive the food and string continuum as a
unit. Even Sinbad, who was first confronted
with the apparatus on 12/21/48 and who was
then presented with food attached to a single
string, "appeared immediately to perceive the
relation between the food and the string and
turned his attention and efforts to pulling in
the string" (to quote our protocols).
Consistent misperceplions occurred for vary-
ing numbers of trials on several of the problems.
The difficulty with problem 11 has already
been mentioned. On problem 5 all but 2 of
21
the 27 errors made by Irvin Young were pulling
the straight string when food was on the
crossed string. This error was completely
dominant in one of Birch's 5s (1). On problem
6 Sinbad made 12 of the 13 errors in the first
group of 50 trials by pulling the straight string
when the food was on the string that crossed
and recrossed. Irvin Young showed a tendency
in the same direction. On problem 10 all errors
made by Lotus were on trials that had the
bait on the longer string.
DISCUSSION
Problems 10 and 11 have not been solved
by monkeys (4), and these are the most difficult
of the series for gorilla and chimpanzee. Prob-
lem 9 is much more readily solved by the apes
than by monkeys, only one spider monkey
having succeeded in the Harlow and Settlage
group of 31 monkeys. Problems 5 through 8
do not show a clear hierarchy of differences in
difficulty. Our gorillas improved with con-
tinued trials on some of the more difficult
problems, as did lunch's chimpanzees. Mon-
keys are reported not to show this improve-
ment with practice (4).
The first four problems were no challenge
to Lotus, nor to the better chimpanzee 5s (2).
Comparisons on problems 5 through 11 show
that on the total of 700 trials the two best
chimpanzees did 93 per cent (Mimi) and 88
per cent (Pati) correctly, while Lotus did 90
per cent. The other two goril'a 5s did 75 per
cent and 73 per cent of these 700 trials cor-
rectly, as compared with 86 per cent and 64
per cent for the remaining two chimpanzees.
On problem 9 both Lotus and Irvin Young did
as well as the best adult chimpanzee's per-
formance. Problem 10 had somewhat less
initial difficulty for Mimi and Pati than for
Lotus, and two of four adult chimpanzees had
less initial difficulty on problem 11 than did
Lotus.
Assuming that age is a factor in the per-
formance of the problems used (1, 6), these
comparisons must be tentative. The data
above suggest that our three young gorillas
did almost as well as the adult chimpanzees
tested by Finch. The performance by Lotus
compares favorably with the best chimpanzee
scores. The younger chimpanzees (four to five
years of age) in Pjirch's study (1) did not do as
well; however, the numbers of trials per
 R I K S K N , G R F K N H R R G , CRANSTON AND FANTZ
prol)lem were fewer, and the sequence of
problems was different:. More work is needed
before definitive statements can be made con-
cerning the relative abilities of gorilla and
chimpanzee, but our data suggest approx-
imately equal ability for these two species on
patterned string problems, or possibly a su-
periority of the gorilla.
It seems quite improbable that differences
in visual acuity account, even in part, for
differences in performance between indi-
viduals and species in this series of problems.
Diameters of the strings used arc so far above
the acuity thresholds of either ape or monkey
that the patterned string problems could
hardly have constituted an acuity test. Yerkes
(9, p. 157) has referred to them as a "test of
perception of spatial relation and of adaptive
capacity." The exact nature of the perceptual
task that is involved, and the factors which
show correlations with different levels of per-
formance remain to be worked out.
S U M M A R Y AN'I) C O N C L U S I O N S
in a standard series of patterned string
problems previously used with monkeys and
chimpanzees, three young gorillas showed a
range of performances comparable to that of
chimpanzees and exceeding that of any species
of monkey studied. There is evidence that age
as well as phylogenetic level are correlated
with performance on these problems. The
problems appear to constitute a series of com-
plex visual perceptual tasks rather than tests
of sensory acuity.
RKI-'KRKNCFS
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Received February 28, 1952.