Experimental Study of Associative Processes 111 
if present, will lead to C just as the sense-impression B did. 
Now, if the chance to associate B with A has been improved, 
you ought, when the animal is confronted with the sense- 
impression A, to get a revival of B and so the act C. Such 
a result would, if all chance to associate C with A had been 
eliminated, demonstrate the presence of representations 
and their associations. I performed such an experiment 
in a form modified so as to make it practicable with my 
animals and resources. Unfortunately, this modification 
spoils the crucial nature of the experiment and robs it of 
much of its authority. The experiment was as follows :— 
A cat was in the big box where they were. kept (see p. 90) 
very hungry. As I had been for a long time the source 
of all food, the cats had grown to watch me very carefully. 
I sat, during the experiment, about eight feet ae the box, 
and would at intervals of two minutes clap my hands four 
times and say, “I must feed those cats.” Of course the 
cat would at first feel no impulse except perhaps to watdh me 
more closely when this signal was given. After ten seconds 
had elapsed I would take a piece of fish, go up to the cage ~ 
and hold it through the wire netting, three feet from the 
floor. The cat would then, of course, feel the impulse to 
climb up the front of the cage. In fact, experience had 
previously established the habit of climbing up whenever 
I moved toward the cage, so that in the experiment the 
cat did not ordinarily wait until I arrived there with the 
fish. In this experiment 
A = The sense-impression of my movements and voice 
when giving the signal. 
B = The sense-impression of my movements in taking 
fish, rising, walking to box, etc. 
C = The act of climbing up, with the impulse leading 
thereunto. — 
