WATSON'S "BEHAVIOR"^ 



E. L. THORNDIKE AND C. J. HERRICK 



Professor Watson's ' Behavior ' is not only an admirable 

 introduction to comparative psychology; it is also an important 

 record of the methods and ideals of investigation approved by 

 a leading investigator and a stimulating account of his views on 

 the general problems of animal life and intelligence. 



Examining it from the first point of view, one finds a clear 

 and readable statement of representative problems, of apparatus 

 and methods, of what is known and opined concerning instinctive 

 tendencies, habit formation, imitation and other possible sec- 

 ondary sorts of learning, of the limits of educability, of the 

 relation of human behavior to that of other animals, and of 

 the sense-powers of animals. Every teacher of psychology who 

 acknowledges the need of providing knowledge concerning animal 

 psychology is in Watson's debt. With Washburn's book for 

 the analysts, Watson's for the behaviorists, and both together 

 for the ordinary matter-of-fact psychologist, the teaching of 

 •animal psychology should be notably efficient. It is interesting 

 to note that animal psychology is now in a position to mete 

 out to the anecdotal school the strongest form of denial — neglect. 

 Watson, if I remember correctly, nowhere quotes or refers to 

 ^Romanes or any of his like. This is probably wise, though 

 pedagogically the contrast in question is one of the best begin- 

 nings for a student. 



There are three topics which the reviewer at least wishes 

 Watson might have included for the student's sake and one 

 which might perhaps better have been left out. First, the 

 behavior of the micro-organisms should, I think, have had a 

 special chapter in addition to the incidental references made. 

 Indeed some of these references are likely, as they stand, to be 

 unintelligible to many students. Second, concrete cases of the 

 phylogeny of behavior, such as Whitman's story of incubation 



1 Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. By John B. Watson, 

 JSTew York, 1914, xh+439 pp. 



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