EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF 



ANIMALS. " 



By N. Vaschide and P. Rousseau. 



Among- the problems attacked by modern experimental ps^^chologv, 

 that of the mental life of animals has a prominent place, all tlie more 

 important because upon its solution depends, in a g'reat degree, the 

 exactitude of our knowledge concerning the evolution of mental activ- 

 ity in the scale of life. 



We know very little about the minds or mental life of animals, 

 and the scanty knowledge we possess concerning their intelligence 

 is largely mingled with legend. Everyone who owns a dog thinks 

 himself a ps3'chologist and that he has made exact observations on 

 animal mentality when he brings out a few simple phenomena that 

 he calls "experiments." These are the defenders of the old maxim 

 of the deep significance of simple observations. 



In another field we note the remarks of professional people, meet- 

 ing ever3'where with citations, after the manner of the illustrated 

 journals, of thousands of methods of capturing animals, methods 

 whose success is believed to indicate the possession by animals of a 

 well-developed imagination. It has even been supposed that we can 

 follow the complex processes of creative animal imagination! 



In this article we will give an account of the experimental investi- 

 gations of the American psychologist, Mr. Edward L. Thorndike. 



I. 



Animal psychology has, up to thi.-5 time, remained in a somewhat 

 rudimentary state; those authors who have occupied themselves with 

 studies of that nature have a tendency to explairi the mental life of 

 animals by associative pi'ocesses. That life being essentially made up 

 of reactions to impressions arising (Mnpirically. i)r()duced either by 

 the influence of her(Mlitary instincts or the personal experience of 

 each animal, it seems umiecessary to appeal to phenomena of al)strac- 

 tion and inference and to concepts in order to explain it. Our author 

 considers that this general tendency is good. It is not, however, so 

 regarded b}' all psychologists, and even those who hold it are still 



"Translated and condensed from the Revue Scientifique (Paris), June 13 and Sep- 

 tember 12, 1903. 



545 



