SMITH'S " MIND IN ANIMALS " > 



HARVEY CARR 



University of Chicago 



The preface states that the book was written to present a 

 brief account of the modes of procedure of animal psychology, 

 its aims, trend and the general nature of the results obtained. 

 Animal psychology concerns the systematic or experimental in- 

 vestigation of the brute mind. 



The first chapter is entitled Protozoan Behavior. The varia- 

 bility or trial and error characteristic of primitive behavior is 

 emphasized while the evidence in favor of retentiveness in these 

 lower forms is not regarded as conclusive. Physiological or 

 motor retentiveness evident in habit formation is discussed in 

 the succeeding chapter. The author presents a good analysis 

 and summary of the more important work on the maze or laby- 

 rinth problem. 



The third chapter is entitled Associative Memory and Sen- 

 sory Discrimination. Associative memory refers to the deriva- 

 tion by an object of a meaning or significance in virtue of its 

 associative nexus with other activities. It is discussed as a 

 criterion of mind, and its utility in studying discrimination and 

 in testing the strength of a habit or instinct is noted. The 

 larger part of the chapter is devoted to a review of the typical 

 experiments on discrimination. 



The following chapter on instinct discusses such topics as 

 their initial imperfection, the generalized character of the stim- 

 ulus, modifiability, periodicity, deferred instincts, etc. Instinct 

 is identified more with the impulse than with the resultant acts. 

 Instinct achieves certain results but the acts or means may 

 vary. A unity of purpose runs throughout the series of acts. 

 Instinct is thus not a mere chain of reflexes nor can it be explain- 

 ed except with difficulty in terms of reflexes and tropisms. The 

 particular instinct of homing is the topic of Chapter V. Homing 



1 The Investigation of Mind in Animals. By E. M. Smith. Cambridge, 1915, 

 pp. lx+194. 



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