ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE: AN EXPERIMENTAL 

 STUDY OF THE ASSOCIATIVE PRO- 

 CESSES IN ANIMALS. 



This monograph is an attempt at an explanation of the na- 

 ture of the process of association in the animal mind. In- 

 asmuch as there have been no extended researches of a char- 

 acter similar to the present one either in subject-matter or 

 experimental method, it is necessary to explain briefly its stand- 

 point. 



Our knowledge of the mental life of animals equals in the 

 main our knowledge of their sense-powers, of their instincts 

 or reactions performed without experience, and of their reac- 

 tions which are built up by experience. Confining our attention 

 to the latter we find it the opinion of the better observers and 

 analysts that these reactions can all be explained by the ordi- 

 nary associative processes without aid from abstract, conceptual, 

 inferential thinking. These associative processes then, as 

 present in animals' minds and as displayed in their acts, are my 

 subject-matter. Any one familiar in even a general way with 

 the literature of comparative psychology will recall that this 

 part of the field has received faulty and unsuccessful treatment. 

 The careful, minute, and solid knowledge of the sense-organs 

 of animals finds no counterpart in the realm of associations and 

 habits. We do not know how delicate or how complex or 

 how permanent are the possible associations of any given group 

 of animals. And although one would be rash who said that 

 our present equipment of facts about instincts was sufficient or that 

 our theories about it were surely sound, yet our notion of what oc- 

 curs when a chick grabs a worm are luminous and infallible com- 

 pared to our notion of what happens when a kitten runs into the 

 house at the familiar call. The reason that they have satisfied us 

 as well as they have is just that they are so vague. We say that 

 the kitter, associates the sound ' kitty kitty ' with the experience 



