128 Animal Intelligence 



DELICACY OF ASSOCIATIONS 



It goes without saying that the possible delicacy of asso- 

 ciations is conditioned by the delicacy of sense-powers. If 

 an animal doesn't feel differently at seeing two objects, it 

 cannot associate one with one reaction, the other with an- 

 other. An equally obvious factor is attention ; what is not 

 attended to will not be associated. Beyond this there is no 

 a priori reason why an animal should not react differently 

 to things varying only by the most delicate difference, and 

 I am inclined to think an animal could ; that any two ob- 

 jects with a difference appreciable by sensation which are 

 also able to win attention may be reacted to differently. 

 Experiments to show this are very tedious, and the practical 

 question is, "What will the animal naturally attend to?' : 

 The difficulty, as all trainers say, is to get the animal's 

 attention to your signal somehow. Then he will in time 

 surely react differently, if you give him the chance, to a 

 figure 7 on the blackboard from the way he does to a figure 

 8, to your question, "How many days are there in a week ? " 

 and to your question, "How many legs have you?' : The 

 chimpanzee in London that handed out 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 straws 

 at command was not thereby proved of remarkable intelli- 

 gence or of remarkably delicate associative power. Any 

 reputable animal trainer would be ashamed to exhibit a 

 horse who could not do as much ' counting ' as that. The 

 maximum of delicacy in associating exhibited by any animal, 

 to my knowledge, is displayed in the performance of the dog 

 ' Dodgerfield,' exhibited by a Mr. Davis, who brings from 

 four cards, numbered i, 2, 3 and 4, whichever one his master 

 shall think of. That is, you write out an arbitrary list, e.g. 

 4. 2, i, 3, 3, 2, 2, i, 4, 2, etc., and hand it to Mr. Davis, who 

 looks at the list, thinks of the first number, says "Attention ! 



