Experimental Study of Associative Processes 75 
animal cannot learn an act by being put through it. For - 
instance, a cat who fails to push down a thumb piece and 
push out the door cannot be taught by having one take 
its paw and press the thumb piece down with it. This 
could be learned by a certain type of associative process 
without inference. Were there inference, it surely would be 
learned. 
Finally, attention may be called to the curves which 
show the way that the animal mind deals with a series - 
of acts (e.g. curves for G, J, K, L and O, found on pages 45 
to 55 and 60.) Were there any reasoning the animals ought 
early to master the method of escape in these cases (see 
descriptions on pages 31 to 34) so as to do the several 
acts in order, and not to repeat one after doing it once, or 
else ought utterly to fail to master the thing. , But, in all 
these experiments, where there was every motive for the 
use of any reasoning faculty, if such existed, where the ani- 
mals literally lived by their intellectual powers, one finds 
no sign of abstraction, or inference, or judgment. 
So far I have only given facts which are quite uninfluenced 
by any possible incompetence or prejudice of the observer. 
These alone seem to disprove the existence of any rational 
faculty in the subjects experimented on. I may add that 
my observations of all the conduct of all these animals 
during the months spent with them, failed to find any act 
that even seemed due to reasoning. I should claim that this 
quarrel ought now to be dropped for good and all, — that 
investigation ought to be directed along more sensible and 
profitable lines. I should claim that the psychologist who 
studies dogs and cats in order to defend this ‘reason’ theory 
is on a level with a zodlogist who should study fishes with 
a view to supporting the thesis that they possessed clawed 
digits. The rest of this account will deal with more prom- 
