88 E. L. THORNDIKE. 



and the practical question is, " What will the animal naturally 

 attend to?" The difficulty, as all trainers say, is to get the 

 animal's attention to your signal somehow. Then he will in 

 time surely react differently, if you give him the chance, to a 

 figure 7 on the blackboard from the way he does to a figure 8, 

 to your question, "How many days are there in a week?" 

 and to your question, " How many legs have you ? " The chim- 

 panzee in London that handed out 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 straws at 

 command was not thereby proved of remarkable intelligence or 

 of remarkably delicate associative power. Any reputable ani- 

 mal trainer would be ashamed to exhibit a horse who could not 

 do as much ' counting ' as that. The maximum of delicacy in 

 associating exhibited by any animal, to my knowledge, is dis- 

 plaj^ed in the performance of the dog ' Dodgerfield,' exhibited 

 by a Mr. Davis, who brings from four cards, numbered i, 2, 3 

 and 4, whichever one his master shall think of. That is, you 

 write out an arbitrary list, e. g., 4, 2, i, 3, 3, 2, 2, i, 4, 2, 

 etc., and hand it to Mr. Davis, who looks at the list, thinks of 

 the first number, says " Attention ! Dodger !" and then, " Bring 

 it." This the dog does and so on through the list. Mr. Davis 

 makes no signals which anyone sitting even right beside or in 

 front of him can detect. Thus the dog exceeds the human 

 observers in delicacy and associates each with a separate act 

 four attitudes of his master, which to human observers seem all 

 alike. Mr. Davis says he thinks the dog is a mind-reader. I 

 think it quite possible that whatever signs the dog goes by are 

 given unconsciously and consist only of some very delicate 

 general differences in facial expression or the manner of saying 

 the words, "Bring it," or slight sounds made by Mr. Davis in 

 thinking to himself the words one or two or three or four. Mr. 

 Davis keeps his eyes shut and his hands behind a newspaper. 

 The dog looks directly at his face. 



To such a height possible delicacy may attain, but possible 

 delicacy is quite another thing from actual untrained and un- 

 stimulated delicacy. The difference in reaction has to be 

 brought about by associating with pleasure the reaction to the 

 different sense-impression when it itself differs and associating 

 with pain tendencies to confuse the reactions. The animal does 



