256 The Animal Mind 



tioned, it seems probable that anticipation rather than ret- 

 rospection is the primitive function of ideas. 



"It may still be objected," continues Cole, "that retaining 

 an image while you raise three, or even six, colors is hardly 

 retention at all, so short is the time. Of course the fact that 

 the animals made steady and rather uniform progress for six 

 days would show that the impression was not effaced in twenty - 

 four hours. Number one, however, was given a review of his 

 first three-color work after an interval of eighteen days. He 

 did not respond to the three blue cards at all, and made but 

 one mistake in twenty trials to the series white, orange, blue, 

 though he did start up at orange six times. The visual images 

 of the colors must therefore have been retained for eighteen 

 days with sufficient clearness to permit successful responses." 

 A certain confusion of thought is evident in this paragraph. 

 The visual images of course were not retained for eighteen 

 days; what was retained was, possibly, the capacity to have 

 the visual image of the third color in the series suggested by 

 the actual occurrence of the second. The length of time 

 this capacity persisted is quite irrelevant to the question as to 

 whether visual ideas were really present. An animal incapable 

 of having ideas might retain the effect of previous stimulation 

 for a long period, and an animal that had ideas might lose the 

 power of having a particular one suggested to it by a given 

 stimulation after a few hours. What we should really like to 

 know is whether the raccoons could think of color number 

 three if color number two were not actually shown them a 

 few seconds earlier; whether they could "think over" the 

 whole performance when the apparatus was not there; in 

 short, how free and unhampered by the control of present 

 sense stimulation their use of ideas can be. Cole concludes, 

 "We are . . . forced to believe that the raccoon retains visual 

 images." We are, at least, shown some reason for thinking 



