Experimental Study of Associative Processes 113 



Another reason for allowing animals representations and 

 images is found in the longer time taken to form the associa- 

 tion between the act of licking or scratching and the con- 

 sequent escape. If the associations in general were simply 

 between situation and impulse and act, one would suppose 

 that the situation would be associated with the impulse to 

 lick or scratch as readily as with the impulse to turn a button 

 or claw a string. Such is not the case. By comparing the 

 curves for Z on pages 57-58 with the others, one sees that for 

 so simple an act it takes a long time to form the association. 

 This is not a final reason, for lack of attention, a slight in- 

 crease in the time taken to open the door after the act was 

 done, or an absence of preparation in the nervous system 

 for connections between these particular acts and definite 

 sense-impressions, may very well have been the cause of the 

 difficulty in forming the associations. Nor is it certain that 

 ideas of clawing loops would be easier to form than ideas of 

 scratching or licking oneself. The matter is still open to 

 question. But, as said before, my opinion would be that 

 animals do have representations and that such are the 

 beginning of the rich life of ideas in man. For the most part, 

 however, such are confined to specific and narrow practical 

 lines. There was no evidence that my animals habitually 

 did form associations of ideas from their experience through- 

 out, or that such were constantly revived without the spur 

 of immediate practical advantage. 1 



1 One result of the application of experimental method to the study of 

 the intellect of animals was the distinction of learning by the selection of 

 impulses or acts from learning by the selection of ideas. The usual method 

 of learning in the case of animals other than man was shown by the studies 

 reprinted in this volume to be the direct selection, in a certain situation, of 

 a desirable response and its association with that situation, not the indirect 

 selection of such a response by the selection of some idea which then of 

 itself produced the response. The animals did not usually behave as if they 

 thought of getting freedom or food in a certain way and were thereby moved 

 i 



