Experimental Study of Associative Processes 119 



Now, the animal does not have either. It does not in the first 

 place react to that particular loop in A, with recognition of 

 its qualities. It reacts to a vague, ill-defined sense-impres- 

 sion, undiscriminated and even unperceived in the technical 

 sense of the word. Morgan's phrase, "a bit of pure experi- 

 ence," is perhaps as good as any. The loop is to the cat 

 what the ocean is to a man, when thrown into it when half- 

 asleep. Thus the cat who climbed up the front of the cage 

 whenever I said, "I must feed those cats," would climb up 

 just as inevitably when I said, "My name is Thorndike," 

 or " To-day is Tuesday." So cats would claw at the loop 

 or button when the door was open. So cats would paw at 

 the place where a loop had been, though none was there. 

 The reaction is not to a well-discriminated object, but to a 

 vague situation, and any element of the situation may 

 arouse the reaction. The whole situation in the case of man 

 is speedily resolved into elements ; the particular elements 

 are held in focus, and the non-essential is systematically kept 

 out of mind. In the animal the whole situation sets loose 

 the impulse; all of its elements, including the non-essen- 

 tials, get yoked with the impulse, and the situation may be 

 added to or subtracted from without destroying the asso- 

 ciation, provided you leave something which will set off 

 the impulse. The animal does not think one is like the other, 

 nor does it, as is so often said, mistake one for the other. It 

 does not think about it at all ; it just thinks it, and the it is 

 the kind of "pure experience " we have been describing. In 

 human mental life we^have accurate, discriminated sensa- 

 tions and perceptions, realized as such, and general notions, 

 also realized as such. Now, what the phenomena in ani- 

 mals which we have been considering show is that they 

 have neither. Far from showing an advanced stage of men- 

 tality, they show a very primitive and unspecialized stage. 



