Experimental Study of Associative Processes 75 



animal cannot learn an act by being put through it. For 

 instance, a cat who fails to push down a thumb piece and 

 push out the door cannot be taught by having one take 

 its paw and press the thumb piece down with it. This 

 could be learned by a certain type of associative process 

 without inference. Were there inference, it surely would be 

 learned. 



Finally, attention may be called to the curves which 

 show the way that the animal mind deals with a series 

 of acts (e.g. curves for G, J, K, L and 0, found on pages 45 

 to 55 and 60.) Were there any reasoning the animals ought 

 early to master the method of escape in these cases (see 

 descriptions on pages 31 to 34) so as to do the several 

 acts in order, and not to repeat one after doing it once, or 

 else ought utterly to fail to master the thing. But, in all 

 these experiments, where there was every motive for the 

 use of any reasoning faculty, if such existed, where the ani- 

 mals literally lived by their intellectual powers, one finds 

 no sign of abstraction, or inference, or judgment. 



So far I have only given facts which are quite uninfluenced 

 by any possible incompetence or prejudice of the observer. 

 These alone seem to disprove the existence of any rational 

 faculty in the subjects experimented on. I may add that 

 my observations of all" the conduct of all these animals 

 during the months spent with them, failed to find any act 

 that even seemed due to reasoning. I should claim that this 

 quarrel ought now to be dropped for good and all, that 

 investigation ought to be directed along more sensible and 

 profitable lines. I should claim that the psychologist who 

 studies dogs and cats in order to defend this ' reason ' theory 

 is on a level with a zoologist who should study fishes with 

 a view to supporting the thesis that they possessed clawed 

 digits. The rest of this account will deal with more prom- 



