14 WALTER S. HUNTER 



"practical ideas," understanding by this a function which does 

 for animals that which practical ideas do for human behavior." 



7. Learning by Being "Put Through" 



Perhaps the most important and best known piece of work 

 on the presence of imagery in animals is that by Cole on the 

 Intelligence of Raccoons. Let us consider the evidence which 

 Cole presents. The argument derived from an animal's learning 

 a problem by being "put through" may be analyzed first. Cole 

 writes in particular reference to Thorn dike, saying " It would 

 seem that nine-tenths of the experimental evidence for the 

 absence of ideas in dogs and cats comes from their inability to 

 learn from being put through."^* Again, "If inability thus to 

 learn is evidence against the presence of ideas, then ability to 

 do so should be equally strong evidence for it."^* In an earlier 

 paper, ^' I have discussed some aspects of this problem in the 

 light of experiments carried out upon the white rat. This phase 

 of the question need not be gone into more fully here. Whether 

 or not it seems probable, from a speculative point of view, that 

 an animal must use "free impulses" or images in order to learn 

 from being "put through," we need not consider. My conten- 

 tion in the paper mentioned is that the data so far at hand 

 do not warrant conclusions as to the presence of imagery. 

 Furthermore t indicated that the behavior could be explained 

 better in other terms. Now with reference to that type of 

 experiment in which the problem learned is that of working 

 latches rather than climbing into boxes, I believe the data 

 presented by Cole are conclusive, as far as the facts are con- 

 cerned. Some raccoons at least appear to learn by being "put 

 through." Whether all raccoons would do so is, of course, 

 quite another matter. But given the fact, it does not follow 

 that one must necessarily interpret it as an evidence of the 

 presence of images. Cole seems to have carried over this inter- 

 pretation rather uncritically from Thorn dike. The entire pro- 

 cess can be adequately stated in sensational terms. Certain 



" Hobhouse, L. T. Mind in Evolution. New York, 1901, p. 283. That Hob- 

 house does not limit himself strictly to this may be seen by reading the first few 

 sentences on p. 284. 



^* Cole, L. W. Concerning the Intelligence of Raccoons. Jour, of Comp. Neur. 

 and Psych., vol. 17, 1907, p. 249. 



^' Hunter, W. S. A Note on the Behavior of the White Rat. Jour, of Animal 

 Behavior, vol. 2, 1912. 



