THE DISPLAY OF ENKIIGY 383 



When Are Animals Conscious? 



If we accept Loeb's mechanistic point of view, no animals lower than 

 man would be considered conscious. As Professor Hodge once said, 

 "A house fly is about as intelligent as a shot rolling down the board." 

 Once a chain of behavior is set in motion, it continues until the life 

 cycle is completed by egg-laying. 



The theory most commonly accepted among psychologists today 

 is that when an animal improves its responses through the use of 

 experience, then it has some degree of consciousness. Just because 

 an earthworm may "learn" to turn to the right instead of the left 

 in a T-tube to avoid an electric shock does not mean that it has either 

 consciousness or memory in the true sense of those terms. Nor does 

 the dog which can be conditioned necessarily have a consciousness of 

 the sound of a bell or of color in the sense that man does. In insects, 

 for example, where there is a highly developed nervous system of a 

 specialized type, the animals live largely in a world of odor. Their 

 perception of food, nest, or surroundings is largely dependent upon 

 odor. Ants recognize each other and their tribal enemies by odor. 

 The male moth recognizes its mate by odor. 



We must be careful not to read our own sensations into the re- 

 sponses of simple animals. As Wells, Huxley, and Wells aptly say, 

 "The jelly-fish only pulsates. A sea urchin with its nerve-net has no 

 sense of wholeness." It is a mistake to assume that lower animals 

 live in a world where space and time play a conscious part. The eyes 

 of worms, insects, or most molluscs do not "see" in our sense of the 

 word. The insect may perceive colors and moving objects, but to 

 many animals the world is a world of light and shadow. Three states 

 of existence are probably found, — that of mere reception of stimuli ; 

 another, in which objects become stimuli ; and in higher animals a 

 perception of space and time. The world of recognized cause and 

 effect is probably open only to the highest animals, such as apes and 

 man. Therefore, consciousness is a very variable term and at most 

 does not mean much to the psychologist. 



Emotional Responses 



The emotional responses of higher animals are a type of nervous 

 and glandular activity that plays a tremendous part in their lives. 

 Feelings, joys and sorrows, fear, anger, worry, or optimism, how 

 much they govern the life patterns of the average man ! Biologically 



