HOLMES'S "ANIMAL BEHAVIOR" 1 



HARVEY CARR 



University of Chicago 



The initial chapter contains an excellent account of the his- 

 tory of thought concerning animal intelligence from the time of 

 Aristotle to the modern experimental movement. Then follows 

 a sketch of the evolution of parental care. It develops from 

 reproduction and the first stage involves the selection of a proper 

 environment for the egg. An added step is found in the instinct 

 to store food for the young. Active care for the egg is the next 

 step and this interest in the egg is extended to the young. 

 Parental care is a necessary condition for the development of 

 the family, organized society, altruism, etc. 



Three chapters are devoted to tropisms. Much illustrative 

 material is given. The author accepts Loeb's reflex theory of 

 orientation for the more primitive organisms, but trial and error 

 is regarded as the predominant mode of adjustment. There is 

 given an excellent sketch of the factors conditioning the reversals 

 of tropisms and of the proposed theories of explanation. 



Three chapters are devoted to intelligence and learning. 

 Associative memory is the criterion of intelligence. Intelligence 

 is derived from the instinctive activities and is not found among 

 the Protozoa. Trial and error is the method of intelligent adap- 

 tation. The views of Spencer, Bain and Thorndike on the 

 mechanism of selection are extensively criticised; the principle 

 of congruity of responses is adopted. The primary acts mediate 

 stimuli which excite secondary responses that in turn may either 

 reinforce or interfere with the former. Selection and elimina- 

 tion are the resultants respectively of this reinforcement and 

 interference. The author emphasizes the point that intelligent 

 adaptiveness presupposes some degree of prior adaptiveness and 

 this primary ingredient of purposive responsiveness is found in 

 the congenital activities; in other words intelligence is neces- 

 sarily a derivative of instinct. 



1 Studies in Animal Behavior. By S. J. Holmes, Badger, Boston, 1916, 266 pp. 



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