The Dawn of Mind 827 



Power of Association 



A bull- terrier called Jasper, studied by Prof. J. B. Watson, 

 showed great power of associating certain words with certain 

 actions. From a position invisible to the dog the owner would 

 give certain commands, such as "Go into the next room and 

 bring me a paper lying on the floor." Jasper did this at once, 

 and a score of similar things. 



Lord Avebury's dog Van was accustomed to go to a box 

 containing a small number of printed cards and select the card 

 TEA or OUT, as the occasion suggested. It had established 

 an association between certain black marks on a white background 

 and the gratification of certain desires. It is probable that some 

 of the extraordinary things horses and dogs have been known to 

 do in the way of stamping a certain number of times in supposed 

 indication of an answer to an arithmetical question (in the case 

 of horses), or of the name of an object drawn (in the case of 

 dogs), are dependent on clever associations established by the 

 teacher between minute signs and a number of stampings. What 

 is certain is that mammals have in varying degrees a strong power 

 of establishing associations. There* is often some delicacy in the 

 association established. Everyone knows of cases where a dog, 

 a cat, or a horse will remain quite uninterested, to all appearance, 

 in its owner's movements until some little detail, such as taking a 

 key from its peg, pulls the trigger. Now the importance of this 

 in the wild life of the fox or the hare, the otter or the squirrel, is 

 obviously that the young animals learn to associate certain sounds 

 in their environment with definite possibilities. They have to 

 learn an alphabet of woodcraft, the letters of which are chiefly 

 sounds and scents. 



The Dancing Mouse as a Pupil 



The dancing or waltzing mouse is a Japanese variety with 

 many peculiarities, such as having only one of the three semicir- 

 cular canals of the ear well developed. It has a strong tendency 



