ANIMAL INTELLIGL:\ ci:. S3 



If the ratio of the average time of the first trial to the average 

 time of the second is smaller in the first class than it is in the 

 second class, we may find evidence of this sort of influence by 

 imitation. Though imitation may not be able to make an ani- 

 mal do what he would otherwise not do, it may make him do 

 quickc?' a thing he would have done sooner or later any way. 

 As a fact the ratio is 77iuch larger. This is due to the fact that 

 a chick, when in a pen with another chick, is not atTlicted by 

 the discomfort of loneliness, and so does not try so hard to get 

 out. So the other chick, who is continually being put in 

 with him to teach him the way out, really prolongs his stay in. 

 This factor destroys the value of these quantitative experiments, 

 and I do not insist upon them as evidence against imitation, 

 though they certainly offer none for it. I do not give descrip- 

 tions of the apparatus used in these experiments or a detailed 

 enumeration of the results, because in this discussion we are 

 not dealing primarily with imitation as a slight general factor in 

 forming experience, but as a definite associational process in 

 the mind. The utter absence of imitation in this limited sense 

 is apparently demonstrated by the results of the following 

 experiments. 



V was a box i6xi2x8><, with the front made of wire 

 screening and at the left end a little door held by a bolt but in 

 such a way that a sharp peck at the top of the door would force 

 it open. 



W was a box of similar size, with a door in the same place 

 fixed so that it was opened by raising a bolt. To this bolt was 

 tied a string which went up over the top of the edge of the box 

 and back across the box, as in D. By jumping up and coming 

 down with the head over this thread, the bolt would be pulled 

 up. The thread was 8 i^ inches above the floor. 



X was a box of similar size, with door, bolt and string 

 likewise. But here the string continued round a pulley at the 

 back down to a platform in the corner of the box. By stepping 

 on the platform the door was opened. 



Y was a box 12 x 8 x 8><, with a door in the middle of the 

 front, which I myself opened when a chick pecked at a tack 

 which hung against the front of the box i y. inches above the 

 top of the door. 



