Experimental Study of Associative Processes 99 



ences, he has formed the association and does the proper act 

 when put in a certain box. The commonly accepted view 

 of the mental fact then present is that the sight of the inside 

 of the box reminds the animal of his previous pleasant experi- 

 ence after escape and of the movements which he made which 

 were immediately followed by and so associated with that 

 escape. It has been taken for granted that if the animal 

 remembered the pleasant experience and remembered the move- 

 ment, he would make the movement. It has been assumed 

 that the association was an association of ideas; that when 

 one of the ideas was of a movement the animal was capable 

 of making the movement. So, for example, Morgan says, in 

 the 'Introduction to Comparative Psychology' : "If a chick 

 takes a ladybird in its beak forty times and each time finds 

 it nasty, this is of no practical value to the bird unless the 

 sight of the insect suggests the nasty taste '' (p. 90). 



Again, on page 92, Morgan says, "A race after the ball had 

 been suggested through the channel of olfactory sensations." 

 Also, on page 86 ". . . the visual impression suggested 

 the idea or representation of unpleasant gustatory experi- 

 ence.'' The attitude is brought out more completely in a 

 longer passage on page 118: "On one of our first ascents 

 one of them put up a young coney, and they both gave chase. 

 Subsequently they always hurried on to this spot, and, 

 though they never saw another coney there, reiterated dis- 

 appointment did not efface the memory of that first chase, or 

 so it seemed." That is, according to Morgan, the dogs 

 thought of the chase and its pleasure, on nearing the spot 

 where it had occurred, and so hurried on. On page 148 of 

 ' Habit and Instinct,' we read, "Ducklings so thoroughly 

 associated water with the sight of their tin that they tried 

 to drink from it and wash in it when it was empty, nor did 

 they desist for some minutes," and this with other similar 



