A STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR OF THE PIG 225 



also because this is a much more difficult problem than the first 

 one. In this also, visual and kinaesthetic guidance seems to 

 account for success, but the extent to which the animals learned 

 to respond to the relation of secondness from the left, no matter 

 what the other relations of the mechanism, was a surprise to 

 the experimenters and is important in connection with the 

 problem of ideation in animals. 



The third problem also was solved with reasonable ease, and 

 the animals demonstrated their ability to acquire the habit of 

 alternation without respect to particular groups of reaction- 

 mechanisms. 



Problem 4 proved too difficult for the pigs. They learned 

 to select the middle mechanism of the series when the groups 

 were small, but when seven or nine mechanisms were in use, 

 they were confused. The indications are that with long train- 

 ing they would learn to react to the particular settings cor- 

 rectly, although incapable of reacting to the constant relation 

 of middleness. 



5. Our results indicate for the pig an approach to free ideas 

 which we had not anticipated. There seems no reason to doubt 

 that visual and kinaesthetic factors in the main determine their 

 responses, but it is evident that they are not so dependent upon 

 the particular situation as are many other mammals. While 

 hesitating to claim that we have demonstrated the presence of 

 ideas, we are convinced that the pig closely approaches, if he 

 does not actually attain, to simple ideational behavior. 



6. The multiple choice method has revealed a number of 

 interesting reactive tendencies, their relations to one another, 

 and the varied ways in which they are manifested in connec- 

 tion with situations which are rather difficult to meet. 



7. Finally, we would again call attention to the fact that 

 this method of studying behavior should enable us, when it 

 has been reasonably perfected and its problems standardized, 

 to determine the level of mental development in different indi- 

 viduals, species, stages of growth, and conditions of normality, 

 and to compare the reactive tendencies, whether or not idea- 

 tional, of other organisms with those of the human subject. 

 Our results thus far fully convince us that the method may be 

 made to yield more valuable psychological and behavioristic 

 information than has any previous approach to ideational 

 problems. 



