NOTE ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THE WHITE RAT 141 



learn by being put through. 8 A second and probably the funda- 

 mental reason why the cats did not learn the reaction is that 

 dropping through a hole runs counter to native tendencies 

 manifested in their behavior. Had Thorndike dropped the 

 cats through the door as Cole did in one series of tests with his 

 raccoons, it is not at all improbable that different results might 

 have been obtained. One who has had occasion to observe 

 the behavior of cats and raccoons can hardly have failed to 

 notice their radical difference when it comes either to entering 

 or to being put into a hole. Raccoons and rats, in their natural 

 habitat, are accustomed to going in and out of holes in reaching 

 and leaving their nests. In captivity they make no particular 

 resistance when being put through a hole. Cats are just the 

 reverse. They avoid dropping through holes, and it is all but 

 impossible to put one through a hole. Thorndike has only 

 recorded the vigorous resistance which his cats made to con- 

 finement. We are not told of their behavior when being put 

 through the hole in the top of the box. 



Thorndike used his results to prove that cats have no ideas 

 to associate, only impulses. Cole, whose results are just the 

 reverse, uses them in his conclusion that raccoons have mental 

 images. If this interpretation be accepted as valid and Thorn - 

 dike's experiments be regarded as conclusive, we are forced to 

 take the position that rats, too, have mental images. Their 

 mental life is thus on a higher plane than that of the cats. Few 

 comparative psychologists, however, will consent to this rela- 

 tive classification of the animals. 



If the various objections above noted be accepted, then the 

 question of ideas is irrelevant to the cats' behavior in the present 

 tests. It remains to be seen that this is also true for the behavior 

 of the raccoons and rats. Reasons have just been given why 

 instinctive tendencies may keep a cat out of the box, but it is 

 doubtful whether instinctive tendencies will get raccoons and 

 rats into boxes. The influence of instinct here is rather nega- 

 tive than positive. The effective factor is association. The 

 constant use of the box as a link in the food getting series has 

 made it attractive in itself, or, to state the matter differently, 

 the very perception of the box has acquired motive power. 



8 Op. cit., p. 6G. 



