THE ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSES IN ANIMALS. 89 



Between such complexity and the serial complexity of the asso- 

 ciation formed by the chick in the labyrinth there is a vast dif- 

 ference. In the latter case situation A causes act B, which 

 brings the animal into situation Cy which causes act D, etc. 

 This is really a matter of a imniber of simple associations. 



Associations that involve complexity in the first sense are 

 very hard for animals to form. If, for instance, you arrange 

 a box so that a cat or dog to escape has to step on a platform, 

 push down a bar, and claw down a string before the door will 

 open, you find that even if the animal is familiar with each of 

 these acts by itself, he will be slow to form the habit of doing 

 the three in combination ; will even, after fifty or more trials, 

 not have the association perfect ; will frequently step on the 

 platform or claw the string again and again, and will not per- 

 form the several acts in any fixed order. The animal does not 

 feel "doing this, doing that, doing the other, getting out," but 

 simply feels, more or less confusedly, intermittently, and in 

 various orders, the three impulses needed. 



As regards the number of associations which animals are 

 able to form, I may best quote, with trifling changes, a para- 

 graph or two from the monograph already mentioned : 



"The patent and important fact is that there are so few in 

 animals compared to the human stock. Even after taking into 

 account the various acts associated with various smells, and 

 exaggerating the possibility of getting an equipment of associa- 

 tions in this field which man lacks, one must recognize how far 

 below man any animal is in respect to mere quantity of associa- 

 tions. The associations with words alone of an average Amer- 

 ican child of ten years far outnumber those of any dog. A 

 good billiard player probably has more associations in connec- 

 tion with this single pastime than a dog with its whole life's 

 business. In the associations which are homologous with those 

 of animals man outdoes them and adds an infinity of associa- 

 tions of a different sort. . . . 



" Small as it is, however, the number of associations which 

 an animal may acquire is probably much larger than popularly 

 supposed. 



" My cats and dogs did not mix up their acts with the wrong 



