STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 549 



succeed in getting out, he was taken out, but not fed; shortly after 

 the experiment was recommenced with him. If. after a sufficient 

 number of trials he failed to get out, the case was considered a failure. 

 Enough animals were successive!}" tried in each box to make it sure 

 that the results were not due to individual peculiarities. As chickens 

 could not be subjected to extreme hunger without danger of death, 

 the author used for them, as a psychological motive, the dislike of 

 loneliness, which is very gi-eat among those animals. 



The associations which it is thus attempted to form are entirely 

 new to the animal; they are such as could hardly have been expe- 

 rienced by it in the course of its past life, still they are not too remote 

 from the ordinary course of its mental activities. They express the 

 connection of a certain act with a certain situation and the will that 

 results from that relation. The movements required by the act are 

 those hal)itual to the animal; we ma}' therefore consider the experi- 

 ments as near as possible to the acts normal to the animal's life. As 

 the acts required are near enough like those reported by the anecdotic 

 school, we may compare the results obtained l)y this method with 

 those furnished by that school. The results are 

 schematically expressed in a graphic manner 

 l)y curves which permit a rapid comparison of 

 many experiments or the following of them 

 through their different stages. The arrange- 

 ment of the method seems excellent; let us see 

 now its results. 



• . "'• . , , ■ ' »' 



A. Ex perimenU conceniing af<m<uation. — no 3 in a. 



r.-ii 1 1 ^' I. ^ ' lA Si i. Fig. 2. — Thorndike, p. IS, fig- 2. 



Ihese have been directed with reference to 



four princii:)al inquiries: (1) How and under what conditions is asso- 

 ciation formed:' (2) What are the psychological elements that com- 

 pose it^ (;^) ^Yhat is the nature of the associations formed? (4) What 

 is their complexity, number, and duration? 



First. Horn and under ivhat conditions is association formed ( — The 

 experiments were made on 13 cats, whose ages varied from to 19 

 months; on 3 dogs, of which one (No. 1) was 8 motiths old and the two 

 others were adults, all three being of at)out the same height: al)out 10 

 chickens were also used. 



The behavior of the cats, with th(^ exception of two. the oldest 

 (No. 13) and one of a naturally apathetic disposition (No. 11), was 

 always the same. All gave at iirst violent signs of discomfort when 

 put into the box, clawing and biting at the bars, thrusting the paws 

 out at any opening. These violent acts lasted eight to ten minutes. 

 All manifested at first a desire to escape; they did not pay very 

 much attention to the food i)lac(Ml outside. By dint of scratching 

 and l)itino- thev all at last succeeded in touchinp- accichMitallv the 



H 



