Experimental Study of Associative Processes 135 



you could get a very vigorous cat to learn the elements in 

 order and form the association perfectly. The case is 

 comparable to that of delicacy. The cat does not tend to 

 know what he is doing or to depart from the hit-or-miss 

 method of learning, but by associating the other combina- 

 tions of elements with failure to get pleasure, as in delicacy 

 experiments we associated the reactions to all but the one 

 signal, you could probably stamp out all but the i, 2, 3 

 order. 



The fact that you have to thus maneuver to get the 

 animals to have the three impulses in a regular order shows 

 that even when they are so, there is no idea of the three as 

 in an order, no thinking about them. Representations do 

 not get beyond their first intention. They are not carried 

 up into a free life which works them over anew. A complex 

 act does not imply a complex thought, or, more exactly, a 

 performance of a series does not imply the thought of a 

 series. Consequently, since the complexity of the act 

 depends on the power which failure has to stamp out all 

 other combinations, it is far more limited than in man. 



NUMBER OF ASSOCIATIONS 



The patent and important fact is that there are so few in 

 animals compared to the human stock. Even after taking 

 into account the various acts associated with various 

 smells, and exaggerating the possibility of getting an equip- 

 ment of associations in this field which man lacks, one must 

 recognize how far below man any animal is in respect to 

 mere quantity of associations. The associations with words 

 alone of an average American child of ten years far out- 

 number those of any dog. A good billiard player probably 

 has more associations in connection with this single pas- 



