STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 



551 



val of 2-i hours separated the last two attempts. When the method of 

 closing the door was simple — if, for example, it was released l\y pulling- 

 upon a cord situated outside the bars or b}^ turning a button — 100 per 

 cent of the cats succeeded. In cages having a more complicated method 

 of closing, irregularity began. Cat No. 2, from 5 to T months old. did 

 not succeed in getting out of the box marked "K," which required 

 three acts to open it. The rapidity with which an association is formed 

 varies considerably. It may be considered as easily formed when it 

 passes from a maximum of 300 seconds to a minimum of (> or 8 seconds 

 in five or six attempts; it is formed with difficulty when the same 

 result is attained only after 30 attempts. Observation of the conduct 

 of animals shows that the rapidity depends on the hereditary aptitudes 

 of the subject, on its past experience, on the attention which it gives 

 to the act. A cat may scratch without attending to any object in par- 

 ticular, but if it accidentally shoves back 

 the bolt its attention will be fixed upon 

 that movement and that particular ob- 

 ject. Finally, account must be taken of 

 the greater or less vigor and the more or 

 less abundant movements of the animal. 

 Attention is often correlated with a cer- 

 tain lack of vigor; the association in this 

 case is more easily formed; a less exag- 

 gerated display of activity, a greater 

 calm, allow the animal to be more con- 

 scious of what is necessary to do. 



Among the 50 graphic tracings that 

 our author presents we notice the two 

 curves shown in figs. 2 and 3 relating to 

 cat No. 3, shut up first in box A, closing 

 with a bolt; then in box K, in which three 

 modes of closing were employed. The 

 number of trials is carried on the line of 

 the al)scissas, as well as the intervals that occurred between each 

 attempt; the duration of each attempt is carried on the ordinates, 

 each millimeter representing 10 seconds. The extreme difficulty 

 which the animal had in getting out of box K will be remarked. 

 The curve is interrupted twice, which indicates two failures. It is, 



tinguished from the idea of the act done or to be done. It is not the motive that 

 leads the animal to do the act; it is the consciousness itself of the performance of the 

 act. There is in it a psychological element and a physiological element. The 

 "impulse" is the feelmg which comes from seeing oneself move, from feeling one's 

 body in a different position, etc. — a position which relates to the execution of a par- 

 ticular act and which characterizes it; it is the consciousness of the kin,iesthetic sen- 

 sations that result from that attitude. Ecjuivalent expressions would be — the feeling 

 or consciousness of movement; the feeling of muscular effort. 



SM 1903—36 



T 



k 



Fig. 4.— Cat No. 3 in box A. Thorndike, 

 p. 22, Formation of association. 



