492 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 



This indicates that the adaptation, of five animals at 

 least, was not to the interior of the maze only, bnt to 

 the larger environment as well. 



It is the purpose of this paper but to point out that 

 the cats concerned in the experiment did not respond 

 merely to the button, but were affected by other condi- 

 tions besides the interior of the box. The question as 

 to what feature or features of the larger environment 

 affected them is left open. It may be conjectured, never- 

 theless, that in the case of the cat, as pretty certainly 

 in the case of Carr's rats, the direction of the light was 

 the main if not the sole factor. The door of the box, in 

 our experiment, in its original position faced a window 

 twelve feet away, there being no window on any of the 

 other sides of the room. Another possible factor was the 

 position of the experimenter, which remained the same, 

 irrespective of the changes in the position of the box. 



The bearing of this experiment on the question of ani- 

 mal intelligence (meaning by "intelligence" conscious 

 analytical capacity with the purposeful adaptation of 

 means to ends, or the purposeful adoption of such means 

 accidentally discovered) is plain. Heymans 4 has recently 

 rejected the problem-box experiment as furnishing any 

 material bearing upon this question. He asserts that it 

 is unreasonable to expect the cat to analyze a situation 

 so terrifyingly new, into which it has been thrust 

 forcibly ; and that man in a similar situation would have 

 some past experience with. locks and bolts to fall back 

 upon, which the animal lacks. But after twenty or 

 twenty-five trials there was no sign of fear on the part 

 of these cats ; and their actions in going to the side where 

 the door had been, and making the turning-motion there, 

 seemed, to say the least, unintelligent. 



Zeit. f. Aug. Psych., 21. 1922. pp. 84ff. 



