Mental Processes in Animals, 343 



perceptual order ; it is a direct stimulation of the faculties 

 through a perceptual presentation of sense or representa- 

 tion in memory which gives rise to an appetence or aver- 

 sion. The importance of such a faculty is obvious. As 

 M. Eibot well says, it is no less than a condition of life. 

 The carnivorous animal that had not its attention roused 

 on sight of prey would stand but a poor chance of survival ; 

 the prey that had not its attention roused by the approach 

 of its natural enemy would stand but a poor chance of 

 escape. The emperor moth that had not its attention 

 roused by the scent of the virgin female would stand but a 

 poor chance of propagating its species. 



We are not, however, at present in a position further to 

 discuss this matter. For there is a factor in the process 

 which we shall have to consider more fully hereafter — the 

 emotional factor. The hungry lion is in a very different 

 position, so far as attention is concerned, from the satiated 

 animal. The force and volume of the attention depends 

 not merely, or even mainly, upon the intensity of the 

 stimulus, but on the emotional state of the recipient 

 organism. 



Endeavour to divert the attention of any animal which 

 is intent upon some action connected with the main busi- 

 ness of its life — nutrition, self-defence, or the propaga- 

 tion of the species — the force of attention will at once be 

 obvious. 



In the training of animals (and young children) artificial 

 associations, pleasurable or painful, have to be established 

 in connection with certain actions. Abnormal appetences 

 and aversions have to be introduced into the mental con- 

 stitution. In this process much depends on the plasticity 

 of the constitution. In the absence of such plasticity it is 

 impossible to establish new associations. 



We have seen that words are arbitrary* symbols, which 

 we associate with objects, or qualities, or actions. Can 

 animals, we may ask, form such arbitrary associations? 



* I use the word " arbitrary " in the sense that they form no part of the 

 normal construct such as would be formed by the animal. 



