36 Animal Intelligence 



due to an instinctive reaction to confinement or to an asso- 

 ciation, it is likely to succeed in letting the cat out of the 

 box. The cat that is clawing all over the box in her impul- 

 sive struggle will probably claw the string or loop or button 

 so as to open the door. And gradually all the other non- 

 successful impulses will be stamped out and the particular 

 impulse leading to the successful act will be stamped in by 

 the resulting pleasure, until, after many trials, the cat will, 

 when put in the box, immediately claw the button or loop 

 in a definite way. 



The starting point for the formation of any association 

 in these cases, then, is the set of instinctive activities which 

 are aroused when a cat feels discomfort in the box either 

 because of confinement or a desire for food. This discom- 

 fort, plus the sense-impression of a surrounding, confining 

 wall, expresses itself, prior to any experience, in squeezings, 

 clawings, bitings, etc. From among these movements one 

 is selected by success. But this is the starting point only 

 in the case of the first box experienced. After that the cat 

 has associated with the feeling of confinement certain im- 

 pulses which have led to success more than others and are 

 thereby strengthened. A cat that has learned to escape 

 from A by clawing has, when put into C or G, a greater ten- 

 dency to claw at things than it instinctively had at the start, 

 and a less tendency to squeeze through holes. A very 

 pleasant form of this decrease in instinctive impulses was 

 noticed in the gradual cessation of howling and mewing. 

 However, the useless instinctive impulses die out slowly, 

 and often play an important part even after the cat has had 

 experience with six or eight boxes. And what is important 

 in our previous statement, namely, that the activity of an 

 animal when first put into a new box is not directed by any 

 appreciation of that box's character, but by certain general 



