20 'Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



the benefits that would come from imitating have been perceived 

 or experienced. For example, suppose two cats are put into a 

 box together. One cat opens a door by turning a button, while 

 the other cat merely looks on. Both pass out and are fed. If 

 now, when the second cat is put back it goes to the button and 

 turns it, thus opening the door, this would be an instance of vol- 

 untary imitation. 



In the nine experiments with cats which have been described 

 I have found instances of imitation. So the question is not, "do 

 cats learn by imitation.?" but instead, "what is the nature and 

 extent of their imitation r " 



In the first place, what evidence is there for voluntary imitation } 

 In Experiment 4, M refused to turn the button until she had seen 

 X turn it several times and get meat. Her failure was not due to 

 lack of hunger, for after she turned the button once she continued 

 to turn it as fast as I could put the meat in and close the hole. 



I consider this a fair example of voluntary imitation, for M 

 refused to turn the button until she had seen X repeatedly get 

 meat by turning it. If it were merely instinctive imitation we 

 should have expected M to scratch at the button while X was turn- 

 ing it, but this she did not do. She merely watched X, and when 

 X was taken out of the box she went to the button and turned it. 

 Of course it may be said that the act was purely accidental, but 

 her manner seemed to indicate that such was not the case. 



In Experiment 6, Y refused to roll the ball into the hole until 

 he had experienced the results that came from performing the 

 act. It was then, and not until then, that he began to roll the 

 ball and watch the door. In Experiment 7, it was not until X 

 had seen several mice killed and had eaten two that she seized 

 and killed a mouse when it was put into the cage with her. 



It seems to me the fairest way of interpreting these cases is to 

 admit that they are instances of voluntary imitation of a low order. 

 I say of a low order, because the imitation did not occur until the 

 required act had been performed many times by the trained animal. 

 In many cases I think it is not so much the association of the 

 trained-animal-performing-the-act with the-getting-of-food, as it 

 is an association of the-act-being-performed with the-getting-of- 

 food. For example, in Experiment 6, Y, I think, first formed the 

 association of X-roIling-ball with the-getting-of-food, but as the 

 act was repeated by X the ball seemed more and more to attract 



