CHAPTER II 



ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE; AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE 

 ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSES IN ANIMALS 1 



THIS monograph is an attempt at an explanation of the 

 nature of the process of association in the animal mind. In- 

 asmuch as there have been no extended researches of a char- 

 acter similar to the present one either in subject-matter or 

 experimental method, it is necessary to explain briefly its 

 standpoint. 



Our knowledge of the mental life of animals equals in 

 the main our knowledge of their sense-powers, of their 

 instincts or reactions performed without experience, and 

 of their reactions which are built up by experience. Con- 

 fining our attention to the latter, we find it the opinion of 

 the better observers and analysts that these reactions can 

 all be explained by the ordinary associative processes with- 

 out aid from abstract, conceptual, inferential thinking. 

 These associative processes then, as present in animals' 

 minds and as displayed in their acts, are my subject-matter. 

 Any one familiar in even a general way with the literature 

 of comparative psychology will recall that this part of the 

 field has received faulty and unsuccessful treatment. The 

 careful, minute and solid knowledge of the sense-organs of 

 animals finds no counterpart in the realm of associations and 

 habits. We do not know how delicate or how complex or 

 how permanent are the possible associations of any given 

 group of animals. And although one would be rash who 

 said that our present equipment of facts about instincts 



*This chapter originally appeared as Monograph Supplement No. 8 of 

 the Psychological Review. 



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