CHAPTER VIII 



ON THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE. 1 



MODERN animal psychology establishes the ac- 

 quirement of knowledge as the criterion of intel- 

 ligence in contradistinction to instinct, or, as we shall 

 hereafter briefly call it, the power of learning, in the 

 widest sense of the term. We have already shown in 

 detail that by no means every modification of instinct 

 acquired by the individual is the result of intelligence. 

 But in order to understand the true value of this criter- 

 ion, we ask, what is meant by "learning" ? We must try 

 to analyze and separate the different notions that are 

 commonly connected with the word, and too frequently 

 confounded with one another. It will soon become 

 apparent which kind of "learning" furnishes an argu- 

 ment for intelligence and which does not. In conduct- 

 ing this investigation we shall not be influenced by any 

 philosophical system, and be guided solely by the natural 

 explanation of biological facts. 



Well established facts in the psychic life of man 

 and animals manifest six different ways or "forms," of 

 learning: three forms of learning by one's self, and 

 three of learning by foreign influence. 



I. The first form of learning is met with in those 

 abilities which are acquired by the mere exercise of 

 reflex motions. It is due to hereditary reflex mech- 



J ) A more detailed discussion of this subject will be found in "Die 

 psychischen FaehigKeiten der Ameisen" (Zoologica, Heft 26, 1899), 

 pp. 82-114. 



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