Modification by Experience 295 



"white, blue, red, food" and "red, red, red, no food" was 

 also used. The raccoons learned to respond properly, 

 "though," Cole continues, "I never completely inhibited 

 the animals' tendency to start up on seeing white or blue, 

 which were precursors of the red which meant food. Thus 

 the animals all anticipated red on seeing its precursors, 

 which in itself seems good evidence of ideation. Many 

 times, however, they turned back after starting at blue or 

 white and looked for the red, then climbed up once more, 

 thus showing that the red was not a neglected element of 

 the situation, but an expected color which they generally 

 waited to see, but sometimes were too eager to wait for." 

 Certain details of the raccoons' behavior are significant. 

 "Each one, on seeing the first red, would drop down from 

 a position with both front paws on the front board to stand 

 on all fours in front of it, and merely glance up at the suc- 

 ceeding reds. As soon as the white appeared, however, 

 the animal would lean up against the front board, claw 

 down the white and blue, but never the final red. 1 ' 



Now Cole thinks that the learning of this trick by the 

 raccoons proved that "the animal retains an image of the 

 cards which just preceded red." The only alternate sup- 

 position seems to him to be that they always reacted to the 

 number of the card in the series, which, if the series were 

 irregularly given, would not have been the same in suc- 

 cessive trials. To suggest one's own interpretation of 

 animal behavior that one has not seen, in the place of the 

 experimenter's interpretation, requires some temerity, but 

 to the present writer the most natural way of accounting 

 for the raccoon's performances would be the supposition 

 that in the series white, blue, red, for instance, at the end 

 of which they were fed, the occurrence of white threw them 

 into a state of expectancy, of readiness to climb up on the 



