THE ASSOCIATIVE PROCESSES IN ANIMALS. 8 1 



feelings are the cause," seems to lead straight to neurological 

 monstrosities and myths. I turn over the problem to the 

 neurologists with my blessing. 



Apart from this one enigma, the nervous action concerned 

 in the formation of these associations is extremely simple, and 

 is right in line with the nervous action concerned in instinctive 

 performances. Certain stimulation is caused in certain cells 

 by a certain external situation acting on the sense organs. By 

 virtue of inherited organization or acquired habits or accidental 

 influences, this stimulation is reflected into one or two or two- 

 hundred motor impulses. From these one becomes chosen in 

 the mysterious way which we have been discussing. In in- 

 stinctive activities natural selection has in advance prepared 

 the neural mechanism so that the stimulus is reflected from the 

 start into a limited field, a field which under natural conditions 

 leads to the appropriate act. 



I ought, perhaps, to justify my use of the word " associa- 

 tion" instead of " habit," especially as Principal C. Lloyd Morgan 

 has used the latter to denote the same resulting phenomena. 

 Neither word is a very good one, for both have in previous usage 

 meant something else than the process I have described. Asso- 

 ciation has meant the association of ideas, which, we shall see, 

 is a different process in important ways. I try to avoid con- 

 fusion from this source by calling our process " animal associa- 

 tion." Habit has meant the strengthening of the tendency to 

 certain activities by mere repetition, as folds are made in the 

 sleeve of a coat. Now the associations, or habits if you will, 

 which we have been studying are formed in spite of habit in 

 this sense. The cat squeezes at a hole ten times where it 

 claws at the button once, yet the act of squeezing in later trials 

 becomes less frequent, and the act of clawing more frequent. 

 The very essence of the phenomena is that the animal does not 

 repeat its acts, but selects from among them in utter disregard 

 of the relative number of times each has been performed. The 

 word " habit" can at best describe the result attained, while 

 the word " association " describes both the result and process, 

 and with no more danger of mistake. 



It is now high time to consider critically the psychological 



