SIXTH LECTURE. 



THE ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSES IN ANIMALS. 



EDWARD THORNDIKE. 



In the previous lecture we studied the general nature of those 

 reactions which animals make to various situations instinctively, 

 or apart from experience. It is obvious that with many ani- 

 mals, in many situations, acts are observable which cannot be 

 so explained. The cat that comes when we call " Kitty, kitty," 

 is not provided by her organic inheritance with any tendency 

 to respond to the situation, "hearing the sound kitty, kitty,'' 

 by the act, "running toward the source of that sound." The 

 ten-days-old chick that, on coming out from the brooder, turns 

 round a corner and goes straight to the dish of water kept 

 always in a certain place, is not guided by any innate tendency 

 to meet the situation, "feeling thirsty while in brooder," by that 

 particular act. So, too, with the dog that sneezes when you 

 say, "Sneeze, Bowser !" the chick that avoids pecking at excre- 

 ment, and with millions of animals performing all sorts of acts. 

 We ordinarily distinguish such activities from those purely 

 instinctive by saying that the animal has learned them. They 

 are the results, not of organic inheritance, but of individual 

 experience. The object of the present lecture will be to explain 

 such activities, to show at least one of the ways in which ani- 

 mals learn or profit by experience. 



Some hints of how this happens were given in our discussion 

 of how instincts led to habits and how they were inhibited. But 

 the matter is so important that I may be pardoned for beginning 

 at the beginning. Let us watch some animals as they learn to 

 meet certain situations in appropriate ways. If we make a pen, 



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