134 Animal Intelligence 



elation into a simple one. He happened one time to paw 

 down the thumb piece at the same time that his other 

 fore limb, with which he was holding on between the door 

 and the top of the box, was pressing against the door. 

 This giving him success he repeated it in later trials and in a 

 short time had it fixed as an element in a perfect association. 

 The marked change in his curve, from an irregular and grad- 

 ual slope at such a height as displayed a very imperfect 

 association, to a constant and very slight height, shows pre- 

 cisely the change from a compound to a simple association. 



Compound associations are formed slowly and not at all 

 well. Further observation shows that they were really not 

 formed at all. For the animals did not, except 3 in K for a 

 certain period, do the several things in a constant order, nor 

 did they do them only once apiece. On the contrary, an 

 animal would pull the string several times after the bolt 

 had gone up with its customary click, and would do some- 

 times one thing first, sometimes another. It may also be 

 noted here, in advance of its proper place, that these com- 

 pound associations are far below the simple in point of 

 permanence. The conduct of the animals is clearly not 

 that of minds having associated with a certain box's interior 

 the idea of a succession of three movements. The animal 

 does not feel, "I did this and that and that and got out," 

 or, more simply still, "this and that and that means getting 

 out." If it did, we should soon see it doing what was 

 necessary without repetition and in a fairly constant time. 



I imagine, however, that an animal could learn to associ- 

 ate with one sense-impression a compound act so as to 

 perform its elements in a regular order. By arranging 

 the box so that the second and third elements of the act 

 could be performed only after the first had been, and the 

 third only after the first and second, I am inclined to think 



